


A blur of different faces but none of them were you

by Rearviewdreamer



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Gym AU, Harry helps motivate people, Louis has no clue what he's doing in a gym, M/M, Personal Trainer Harry, its tragically adorable, larry au, one direction - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-10
Updated: 2014-09-10
Packaged: 2018-02-16 22:40:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 22,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2287031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rearviewdreamer/pseuds/Rearviewdreamer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry thought he had this whole personal training thing down until a boy with blue eyes wanders into his gym.</p><p> </p><p>or</p><p>Harry is Louis' trainer at the gym and Niall is a horrible insult to physically fit people everywhere.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A blur of different faces but none of them were you

“In coming, Malik!”

The sigh Zayn makes can be heard over the whirring of machines and heavy breathing that’s always surrounding them.

“Wright looks tired already. Good luck with that.” Niall snickers into a fist. Zayn gives Niall a murderous look which quickly turns into an easy smile when Mr. Wright finally shuffles in, shoulder hunched and bag scraping the floor.

Zayn greets him with all the enthusiasm of a personal trainer ready to go, but his eyes look dead bored and they haven’t even done anything yet.

“Poor thing.” Liam laughs as he watches the two of them walk off towards the equipment, Mr. Wright already informing Zayn of the back and leg pain he claims to be having today while Zayn nods and listens dutifully. “I think the only bone that man hasn’t complained about is his skull.” Liam says and Harry laughs, meeting his eyes so Liam gets full recognition of the joke.

They all watch Zayn try to motivate Mr. Wright to pick up his pace and start an actual jog before getting back to towel folding. Actually, Harry is just waiting for his two o’clock to show up and isn’t even on towel duty at the moment, but Liam helped him the last time so he’s just paying back the favor. He wishes one of them would help him clean the cycling room later, but he’ll most likely get no volunteers there.

“Who’s coming in for you? Lucas, right?” Liam asks a little later as he’s checking out the schedule behind him, the clock ticking on above his head. Lucas should be walking in any minute now. He’s usually about five minutes late since he takes the bus to the gym.

“Yep! And there he is!” Harry says right when the boy in question is strolling in through the door. He always feels so proud of him each time he shows up because Lucas was once a scrawny uncoordinated lad who could hardly make it up a flight of stairs without getting winded. He got set up with Harry almost a year ago and now he’s the fit toned boy currently waving at him.

“Sorry I’m late. Bus took forever and I had study hall.” He apologizes, pulling out his earphones and wrapping them around his phone. “Weights or cardio today?”  He shouts back as he heads off to the locker room to drop off his stuff.

“Weights! I’ll meet you over there.” Liam hands over Lucas’ file and a fresh towel before Harry even reaches for it. “Thanks, Li!” he shouts back as he makes his over to the free weights.

Lucas has him for fifty intense minutes where Harry pushes him to do the very best that he can. He is definitely one of his favorite clients for the mere fact that he actually tries and wants to improve himself, unlike some members who basically show up to waste their own money and time just to be able to say they occasionally ‘go to the gym’ or ‘have a personal trainer’. Harry will never understand people who fake fitness.

The sound of the curling bar clanging helps Harry keep track of how many reps Lucas has completed, and before they both know it their time is up. Lucas towels off, shouts a happy _See you Thursday_!, and is out the door ready to catch the bus for his next class. Harry collapses into one of the chairs behind the desk, worn out from spotting and instructing for nearly an hour.

“Who else do you have left?” Harry asks Zayn who is aimlessly clicking around on the computer doing absolutely nothing.

“Two more.” He mumbles then smiles to himself. Harry immediately jumps on the change in his expression.

“Perrie coming in today, then?”

Zayn’s expression softens as he continues to smile to himself. “She is.”

Harry rolls his eyes, but it’s out of fondness. “Why don’t you actually ask her out sometime instead of pining from afar?”

He responds to Harry much too slowly and much too affectionately. “Shut up.”

 

Days often blur together between all the miles he logs and the reps that he watches people do, and before Harry knows it, it’s Monday again and the cycle is repeating. He gets met with the same group of familiar faces, revolving in and out of the gym like doors in a department store.

Mrs. Hennings, Thomas, and Amelia all come before noon and then he’s left there at the front desk watching other members shuffle in and out, some meeting up with their trainers, others working out on their own.

“Shouldn’t you be doing something other than taking a nap? Like I don’t know, cleaning the women’s locker room like Zayn told you?”

Harry kicks Niall’s ankle from where he’s lying on the floor trying to balance a banana on his nose. “No. Shouldn’t _you_ be wiping down the windows out back like Liam asked?” Harry retorts.

Niall shrugs, clicking past each new song that plays on the loud speakers, filling up the building with short staccato sounds until he finds one he actually likes. “Fair point.” Niall starts in on a rant about Liam’s shitty Spotify account and Harry gets hungry enough lying there that he actually peels the fruit on his face rather than playing with it.

He’s almost done chewing when Niall’s tirade comes to a halt and an unfamiliar voice filters down to Harry’s level on the floor. “Oh hey! How can I help you?” Niall stands up, abandoning the computer screen.

 “Hello! I’m interested in joining…” the boy’s voice tapers off for a few seconds. “Sorry I’ve never really joined a gym before so I don’t really know how this works.”

Harry stops chewing as soon as the guy speaks. His voice isn’t as deep as Harry’s or even Liam’s, but the small rasp in it makes him sound like he’s older rather than a teenager like Lucas. He wonders what he looks like because he’s having a hard time picturing a face to match the unique lift in the way he talks.

“It’s cool. I’m Niall, what’s your name?”

“I’m Louis,” he says happily. Harry just catches Louis’ arm extend over the countertop to shake Niall’s hand. “So! How do we go about this, Niall? What’s step one?” The man giggles a bit at how lost he is to the whole process, and that’s it, Harry has to sit up. He has to see this guy with the weirdly attractive voice and the equally unique and attractive name and giggle. He stands making both Niall and Louis jump.

“JESUS! I forgot you were down there!” Niall shouts, clutching his chest and leaning on the countertop like the dramatic idiot that he is, but Harry isn’t concerned about him. How can he be when Louis’ face is a million times better than Harry could have ever imagined?

He’s so taken with the boy that he has a few lapses in his thinking while he’s deciding which part of Louis he likes the best. His skin is rich like warm cappuccino, and his hair; where does he even begin with the unorganized mess hanging just below his ears and falling into his eyes; those _eyes_. Louis’ voice was just the tip of the iceberg.

“Um hi?” He gives Harry this puzzled expression where his eyebrows crinkle so much that they almost touch in an arch above his nose.

Harry counts a few beats in his head so he doesn’t sound too anxious to answer him. “Hi.” It isn’t the greatest greeting in the world, but Louis has yet to stop looking at him so he must be doing alright. Harry smiles at him, but he didn’t really mean to; it just sort of broke out all over his face. “You want to join today? I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, sorry, I just happened to be lying there and heard you.” Harry’s face heats up when Louis cracks a grin.

“Yeah. He _was_ just about to join before _you_ ruined it. Get out of here will ya? I’ve got this.” Niall tries to wiggle his way back to the forefront of Louis’ focus. “Alright so I was saying,” Niall points back down to the gym rates on his clipboard, “You can do a monthly plan, six month, or year. If you do the monthly one you can’t-” Harry goes to take a step back, but then takes another forward and right in Niall’s space.

“I can do this if you want, Niall,” Harry interrupts looking over Niall’s shoulder at Louis. “You know if you have something _else_ to do.”

He catches Niall rolling his eyes when he turns around to meet him. “Mate. What is with you? What are you being all weird about?”  He asks at a volume he probably thinks Louis can’t hear, but the small smile playing at his lips says otherwise.

“What’s going on?” Liam chirps when he walks up, waving goodbye to one his clients who is just leaving. Sweat dripping off of her face and arms and she half-heartedly waves back.

“Harry’s being a weirdo, what else?” Niall turns back to Louis to start his sales pitch again. “Sorry about him. Mental, that one.”

Liam frowns and watches the situation while Louis signs up for a six month membership and Harry busies himself raking through files just so he looks like he’s doing something. He nearly jolts out of his seat when Niall mutters something about giving Louis a tour as he’s filing away his information.

“I’ll do it.” He meets Louis’ eyes to avoid Niall and Liam’s. “I’m Harry by the way.” He extends his hand waiting for Louis to grasp it. He likes how his skin is as soft as it looks.

“Louis…but I guess you know that from when you were listening on the floor.”

Harry blushes again, grinning to ease some of the anxiousness out of himself. “Alright Louis, well I’m going to be your tour guide for the next eleven to twelve minutes. I’ll try not to bore you to death.”

“Ugh! You want me to walk _and_ listen for twelve whole minutes? I knew this whole gym thing was bad news.” He jokes but flows right behind him.

They make their way to the far end of the building with Louis following behind him like a shadow. He hides his smile each time Louis accidently steps on the back of his heel and makes them trip and almost fall.

“So we have two rooms for classes. We have yoga and cardio in room one and there’s cycling in room two. The schedules are always on the door, so if you’re interested you can look there for times and days and all that.” Louis looks into the rooms with intrigue but doesn’t really say anything.

They walk a little farther and come across some of the cardio equipment; some machines are in use by other members, but not many. We have ellipticals, power trainers, and treadmills. We also have a stair climber but no one hardly ever uses it. If you need help with the machines just ask.” Louis nods glancing over all the buttons on one of the treadmills. He looks a little lost so Harry tries to do a check in. “Any questions so far?”

“Mmm…nope. Think I’m good.” he grins, and walks ahead of Harry to the free weight section looking more than a little intimidated and taking a few steps back the way he came. Harry doesn’t blame him though because Zayn’s client is definitely more than a little scary as he’s lifting some of the heaviest weights they have and hardly breaking a sweat while doing it.

“Hey.” Zayn waves at them looking like he wants to be anywhere else than with his client, Michael who never listens to a thing he says. “You should rest for five.” He says but the guy shakes his head, firsts still clenched around the bar in his hands. “Well, rest for five when you’re ready then.” Zayn says flatly. He doesn’t even know why Michael wanted a personal trainer when his arms look to be the circumference of Harry’s head.

They don’t spend much time going over the different equipment in that area before Louis’ attention fades. They look over a few more gym features like the pool and rehab center, and then their time together comes to an end as they approach the front desk. Now Zayn, Liam and Niall are there, all watching as Harry escorts Louis out of the men’s lockers. If Louis notices eyes on them, he surely doesn’t say anything as they stand there.

“So thanks for showing me around.”

“No it’s no trouble at all. I hope you’ll like it here.” He smiles. He would like to say something else here. Something memorable or significant just on the off chance that Louis might think about him later and smile, but nothing comes to mind.

“I’ll just grab you a schedule with the hours and who teaches which classes.” He avoids looking at any of his friends for too long when he grabs one of the papers from the pile on the desk and hurries back. “Here you go.” Louis smiles and shoves the paper down in his backpack. “Okay! Well…any questions for me?” Harry really hopes he has questions.

“Mmmm…can’t think of any at the moment, but if I do I’ll know to come find you.”

“Yeah?” Harry shouldn’t even be pleased with that answer. Of course Louis would come ask him questions, he works here. “Yeah. Yeah, okay.”

“Alright…” Louis looks around the room for a few seconds still smiling. “Well I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah…Okay. Alright.” Harry nods. Louis hovers around for a few more seconds and then he’s out the door leaving Harry to stare after him.

He knew he shouldn’t have come back to the front desk, but alas, here he is. Niall is falling all over Liam laughing so hard that his eyes are watering and Zayn is just shaking his head with this shit eating grin on his face.

“WHAT was that?!” Niall laughs. He makes his voice all deep then crosses his eyes to mock Harry. “ _Um…okay…alright. Okay. Yeah. Alright_. And just when you think he’s done! _Yeah!_ _Okay_ , _Alright!_ ” Niall erupts into another fit of laughter and this time Liam pinches him in the side.

Zayn pipes up next. “Now who’s admiring from afar?” he crosses his arms to lean onto the countertop and his elbow nearly slips right off when the door opens and Perrie walks in.

“Clearly still you.” Harry mutters, now smirking himself.

“Hi Zayn!” she smiles walking up to him. It takes the color in his face a while to come back while he scrambles to leave the welcome area.

“Oh, hey Perrie. Hi. How are you? You ready? We should get started. Uh.. we’ll start at the treadmill today?” Perrie nods, eyeing him with amusement. Zayn hurries to snatch her file out of Liam’s hand and walks her toward the equipment faster than any of them have ever seen him move. He doesn’t even look back to see Niall abandon Liam’s side and drape himself over the desk to laugh instead.

“You lot are _killing_ me today!” he wipes at his eyes which are shining with over flowing tears. “Tell me you two saw that shit! _Oh! Hi! Oh. Perrie!!”_

Niall finally stops laughing long enough to stand up straight, but then catches sight of Harry and starts right back up again.

*

He feels proud when Mrs. Hennings steps off the scale with a bright smile stretching across her face. She’s been working hard with him for months and she’s almost down to her goal weight after giving birth to twins earlier in the year. She hugs him as soon as her feet are back on the ground.

“I wouldn’t believe I was reading the scale right if you weren’t here reading it too!” she squeezes him before she finally lets go.

“Well you did all the work,” Harry explains. “The scale is just a tool to help you see it.”

She shakes her head disbelievingly. “I still can’t believe I’ve lost almost forty pounds so far! That’s insane!”

Harry is happy for her, really he is, but he needs her to know that the scale doesn’t actually matter.

“I’m glad you’re excited Mrs. Hennings, but remember it’s more about how you feel. I know you want to hit that target weight and that’s great, but don’t rely on the scale so much. It just spits outs numbers.”

She nods her head at the same speech she’s heard a million times by now. “I know, love. I know! But Harry…forty pounds after twins is more than amazing! I can’t thank you enough.”

“Well, just keep making healthy choices and watch your portions. In two or three weeks we’ll be right back here ready to celebrate!”

She does a little squeal women of her age rarely do then hugs Harry again. “I can’t wait to tell my husband! I have to call my sister! She’s going to die when I tell her!” She wishes Harry a goodbye as she heads to the lockers to get her things. Harry laughs and shakes his head watching her practically run to get her phone.

He sprays down the equipment she used when she’s long gone and goes to do a routine check of the facility just to make sure no one is dying or passed out somewhere; no one ever is, but it’s protocol so he has to check.

A girl named Emily waves over to him when he passes the cardio machines, as well as a few other members who are working out on their own.

He makes his way over to the free weights section and nearly runs into the handle of a curl bar when he sees him. Louis; hair falling all over the place and the arms of his tank cut so low that he might as well not even be wearing one.

He doesn’t notice Harry watching him when he struggles to put back the weight which is obviously too heavy for him. He lifts the hem of his shirt up to wipe at his face exposing all the golden skin beneath, then huffs out a sigh, looking around for something else to lift.

He tries out a few that are still far too heavy for him then settles on one that is lighter, but still not right. That’s when Harry’s professional side kicks in and he makes his way over.

“Hi Louis, how are you?”

The boy almost drops the weight on his foot when he whips around. “Oh! Harry it’s you.” He sighs, “I thought it was that huge guy I saw earlier today. He was literally three times my size.” He laughs with difficulty, trying to put the weight back. He rotates his wrist a few times like he’s pain then drops his arms back down.

“You know if these are too heavy you can always use the ones more towards the middle. You should start small then move up as you need to. You don’t want to hurt yourself.”

Louis looks over to the smaller weights Harry is pointing to, but doesn’t look convinced. “But those aren’t heavy…I’m not even breaking a sweat with those.”

“Yeah, maybe not, but you’re putting too much stress on your muscles with the big ones, so you should move up in increments.”

“Hmmm.” Louis hums thinking to himself. “Yeah, I guess that does make more sense.” He shakes his head smiling to himself and Harry has to keep reminding himself that this is a gym and not a pub so he can’t just chat Louis up or drag him to a dark corner somewhere. “Can you tell I have no idea what I’m doing?”

“Well you signed up for six months, so you can get free consultation if you want. You also have access to a personal trainer for a fee.”

“Yeah I think Niall was saying something about that when I signed up. I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Okay then. Well I’ll be at the front desk if you need me.”

“I was just leaving. I’ve been here nearly an hour. That’s more physical activity than I’ve seen this past year.” He jokes and makes his eyes squint up. Harry is sure he’s the most attractive person to ever become a member here and that includes that one guy who listed professional model as his occupation when he signed up.

He averts his eyes when Louis bends down to pick up his things and leads them towards the door. He saw how fit Louis was from day one, but it’s not fair to check him out while he’s at work and Louis has no clue.

“You coming?” Louis looks back when Harry isn’t immediately following after him. His voice snaps him back to reality where Louis and his bum are about to leave for the day. Harry takes a few long strides to catch up to him.

“Yep coming! Sorry about that.”

*

“Hand me those chocolates!” Niall yells from his couch were he has decided to not move. He hears Liam whispering something, probably conspiring along with him. Niall is a horrible influence on people.  “ _Oh yeah those are good…”_ he hears Niall whisper back. “And those crisps in the cabinet too!! Bring those!!”

Liam must pinch him because Niall shouts out an “Ow! Okay, okay!” and then a “Pretty please, Haz?”

He throws the requested snacks on Niall’s lap then takes his place back on the floor leaning against Zayn’s legs. He watches as Niall shoves piece after piece of sugar and grease down his throat, only pausing to hand small portions off to Liam.

He hates them both. Well not Liam so much as Niall, also known as, _eat anything and burn it off within ten seconds_. He has been a personal trainer for almost three years, and Harry has never seen a person able to literally consume anything, do absolutely nothing to exercise, and still look the way Niall does. He’s just about to say as much when Zayn beats him to it.

“Your arteries are probably weeping, mate. You ate a large pizza by yourself at lunch today and you’re nearly finished with that bag of chocolate and it’s been what, five minutes?” he laughs. Zayn barely has room to talk because it’s hard for him to put on weight as well, but at least he tries to eat like a human being every now and then.

“Hey! I’m sharing with Liam! If I’m a fatty then so is he.”

“Liam also ran for an hour today and had grilled chicken for lunch.” Harry argues on behalf of everyone who isn’t Niall.

Niall shakes his head, still chewing when he speaks, “Jealousy turns people into animals. Let me live!”

Zayn scoffs, “Yeah live till about thirty-five.” He mumbles into Harry’s ear causing him to laugh.

“How dare you, Malik?! I’ll have you know my blood pressure and cholesterol are impeccable! My doctor says I could live to be one hundred probably!”

“Mmmhmmm. We’ll see.”

“Why are you being a dick?”

“Why didn’t you offer me any chocolate?” Zayn asks.

“Ugh! Is that what this is about?! Here!” Niall throws the piece he was just unwrapping at Zayn, “You just have to ask. You don’t need to attack my lifestyle!”

Zayn makes a face of disgust at the piece of melting chocolate currently sitting in his lap. “Gross! I want a new piece not one your grubby fingers have been sweating all over!”  Niall just shrugs at him and keeps eating while Liam and Harry burst into another fit of laughter.

*

Louis scares the absolute shit out of him when he pops up in front of the welcome desk out of nowhere. Harry didn’t even see him leave the weights section, and trust him, he was definitely looking.

“So I thought about what you said the other day. You know about the trainer and all? I think I want to do it, because let’s face it I have no clue what the hell I’m doing.”

Once the general shock of having Louis mysteriously appear in front of him wears off he is able to answer him. “Alright, lets sign you up… Hopefully a trainer will work better for you.”

“Who will I get? Will it be you?” Louis’ eyes dance all over Harry from the top half of his torso up to his face.

Harry is absolutely flattered by the hopefulness in his voice; it even pulls a grin out him as he begins to edit Louis’ membership. “Uh we usually see whose schedule fits you best and who has time to take on another member, so it might be me.”

Louis watches him typing behind the desk with playful eyes, asking Harry any questions that come to mind, making Harry sweat from having so much of Louis’ attention on him all at once.

“So you’ll get billed and the new fee will show up there. We’ll call you when we get you a trainer that matches your schedule…and I think that’s it. Anything else you need me to do?”

Louis smirks like he’s about to say something a tad bit inappropriate, but then changes his mind. “Nope. You took care of it all.”

“Okay, well feel free to continue working out on your own until we call you later.”

“Nah. I think I’ll just wait to work out with you.” He says gathering his things and slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

“Well it might not be me...” Harry warns him again, just so he knows. Niall will probably be the one to take Louis on since he’s training the fewest number of clients at the moment.

“Yeah it might not,” Louis grins, “but maybe it will.”

Harry’s face is flushed from the way Louis’ words filtered through his ears like warm honey right before he left. He would love to train Louis, but something tells him it would be a challenge seeing as how he can barely even look at the boy without blushing.

“What’s this?” Zayn asks, grabbing Louis’ file from the countertop and flipping through it. Liam comes up right after him, followed by Niall, waving goodbye to Mr. Mallard. “Did he want a trainer?”

“Yep. Just signed up.”

Liam looks over Zayn’s shoulder to read Louis’ work schedule. “I can’t take him. I have a client during most of his free time.” He shrugs.

“I could.” Zayn says off handedly, flipping through the rest of the papers in the folder.

“Let me see. You have more than Liam anyway…” Niall says taking the folder away to flip through it himself. “Yeah see,” he says nodding. “I don’t have anyone during these times. He’s mine.”

Niall _should_ be the one to train him, but that’s not the way Harry envisioned this going. He has to stop Niall. “I uh... I could take him. I don’t mind.” Harry squeaks out hoping it was casual enough to not draw any attention. Everyone’s eyes immediately flick over to him standing in the corner.

“Harry, you already have nine clients. Niall only has four.” Zayn says, eyeing him suspiciously. “Why would you take on another?”

Harry flounders for a moment trying to come up with a viable excuse for trying to single handedly train the entire gym population. “Mrs. Hennings will be done after this week. She’s about to hit her goal so she won’t need me as much anymore. And Lucas said something about maybe taking on an after school job so that would cut his gym time in half…” His face is warming up because no one is buying his story. He doesn’t know what else he can say to turn this around. Maybe he should just let Niall do it.

“I see right through you, Styles. You _think_ you’re sneaky, but you’re not.” Niall states handing him back the folder. “If you want Hot Louis all to yourself then just say so.”

“What? I don’t! That’s- That is not what I said!”

“That’s what you meant though.” Liam says, meeting Zayn’s eyes to laugh.

And yeah, so maybe Harry does want to train Louis. So what? No one said anything when Zayn took on Perrie without even consulting the rest of them. That’s the real crime here! Shouldn’t they be talking about _that_?

“ _He_ requested _me_!” Harry throws it out there like a ticking time bomb. Words left hanging in the air just waiting for someone to call bullshit. It doesn’t take too long.

“He did not.” Niall scoffs.

Well maybe not in so many words… “He did! Ask him next time he’s here who he wants, he’ll say me! Why are we even still talking about this? Let’s just make a decision so we can call him and let him know. This is ridiculous!”

You mean so _you_ can call him and let him know?”  Zayn laughs into his hand but stops when Harry gives him a death glare. “I mean. I don’t care if you or Niall take him. It’s whatever. Do what you like.”

“Same.” Liam nods. Everyone looks to Niall who is smiling and staring directly at Harry.

“Hot Louis is all yours if you want him.” he says easily, eyes sparkling, just waiting for Harry’s hand to jump to the phone.

Harry shrugs it off like it’s nothing, already reaching for it. “Alright then it’s sorted. I’ll train him since he asked specifically for me, and Niall can have the next person to request a trainer.”

“Mmmmhmm… Sure Haz. You train Hot Louis and-”

“Can you stop calling him that?! I never said that!”

Niall rolls his eyes when Zayn and Liam both start laughing again. “It’s what you were thinking though.”

Harry is going to kill them all.

*

“I’ve got to say, I’ve never tried to actually exercise before so don’t expect too much.” Harry loves the way Louis lifts a playful eyebrow as if to back up his statement.

“It’s cool. That’s why I’m here to help you.” They’re in the small seating areas near the front desk watching other members coming in and out as they talk strategy. “So what are your goals?”

He’s expecting an immediate answer, but Louis starts fiddling with the hem of his shirt instead like he’s not sure how. “Maybe if you tell me why you joined the gym to begin with? That’s an easier question.”

And Louis must think so because he finally starts talking. “You know the whole first year uni weight that everyone gains and then drops by year three or at least after they graduate?” Harry nods grinning. He knows all too well what take away and alcohol every night can do to you. “I graduated a year ago and it’s all still there and then some. I want it gone.”

Harry nods and writes it all down, but he takes another sneaky peek at the boy sitting across from him. Louis looks amazing as he is, so he’s not sure why he looks so small and embarrassed at the moment. “How much extra weight have you gained, would you say?”

Louis looks around like he doesn’t want to answer, and it’s so different from the confidence he usually has. “I’m not sure. I kind of stay clear of scales, but I don’t know… about fifteen to twenty pounds? maybe twenty five?”

“We’ll get on just great then,” Harry laughs. “I hate scales too.” Louis looks a little more relaxed. “Well I’m going to write down fifteen because it’s average uni weight gain, and I think you losing any more than that would be too much. There’s no way you’re twenty five pounds overweight, Louis so I’m not even going to write that down. Do you have any other areas of concern though?”

“Mmmm… I would like to tone up my arms and my stomach a bit…and my thighs and arse could always use some attention.”

Harry bites down on his lip to keep from commenting. His waist looks cute and small from all the angles he’s seen it, but if Louis wants it firmer than who is he to argue? He has _definitely_ noticed Louis’ thighs and bum. In fact, he has devoted time to thinking about the exact kind of attention they deserve…not that he’d say any of that to Louis.

When they finish chatting he makes Louis weigh himself, the whole time promising him that he’ll rarely ever make him get on the scale, but they do need to know what his current weight is. When he writes it down, he’s sure now more than ever that twenty pounds would be too much weight for Louis to lose. Fifteen is already a lot for his small frame as it is.

They talk about food choices and that’s when Harry sees that he has his work cut out for him. Louis doesn’t cook, so everything he eats either comes out of a box or is ordered from a menu. He asked Louis about his fruit and vegetable intake and he erupted into laughter, so Harry sets some guidelines for him to follow as well as touching on the importance of portion control.

By the time they finish an hour has passed and Louis looks only slightly overwhelmed. Most people look like a deer caught in headlights by this time, so Harry is used to it.

“Thanks for doing this, I really appreciate it. I’m glad I got put with you.” Louis says. His eyes dance around Harry’s face before settling on his eyes. “I’ll guess I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah, tomorrow.” Harry breathes out.

He feels airy and light even after Louis is gone.

Liam points it out as soon as he makes it over to the desk. “You sure you can handle him, Haz?” he smiles, his eyes crinkling up in the corners from Harry’s misery. “I don’t even think Zayn is this bad with Perrie.”

And just like Zayn when he’s getting teased, Harry gives the same childish response. “Shut up.”

*

“You want me to _run_?” Louis’ face is horrified and Harry can’t stop himself from doubling over with laughter. “Harry, you’re going to kill me the first day! Jesus!”

“You’re not going to run today… probably. We’re going to work up to it, but eventually yeah, you’ll be able to do it.”

Louis is just staring at him, then he gives a weary sigh as he’s climbing up the treadmill. “If you say so…”

“I do!” Harry claps his hands together then gestures for Louis to stand in the middle. “So we’ll start with a brisk walk then we’ll see what your limits are. It’s okay if you want to stop at any time, just let me know.”

He laughs at the face Louis makes at the words ‘brisk walk’. “What am I, seventy?” he spits out.

It turns out that Louis can hold a jog for about twelve uninterrupted minutes before his heart rate starts shooting through the roof which is mostly due to his atrocious breathing pattern through his mouth; that can be easily remedied with a few lessons on breathing technique. Walking wasn’t a big deal for him at all; he actually yawned during that bit and started singing to the dismay of the woman jogging just a few machines over.

He makes Louis jog in intervals of thirteen minutes broken up by walking for three, increasing the speed as he goes, and Harry thought that would tire him out, but no, Louis chats with him the whole time even when he’s out of breath and dragging his feet along to scrape against the belt. The only time he’s ever quiet is when he sneakily peeks at the man who hops on the treadmill next to him. The man takes off at a fast paced run barely even breaking a sweat. Louis looks at the speed on his own machine with a little crease between his eyebrows. Harry gently touches his arm to get his attention. “You’re doing great. Keep going.” He encourages until Louis gives him a tiny quirk of his lips.

“So how do you feel?”

Louis is sitting on the floor now, leaning up against another machine. He does that thing where he lifts his shirt to wipe his face and Harry has to force himself to avert his eyes yet again. He wishes he could take more than a quick peek.

“Like death.” he grins. “But I’m alright. Nothing hurts like when I was working out alone so that’s good. What’s next? Weights to beef up my arms?”

“No, not today. An hour and fifteen is good enough. We don’t want to overdo it.”

“See this is why I needed a professional.” He pokes Harry in the back of the knee, his face lighting up when Harry lets out a half yelp half giggle noise. “I’ll have to remember you’re ticklish for when you make me full on run. I’ll need leverage.” He says and wiggles his eyebrows.

Harry sits next to him while he’s still catching his breath. “You’re free to go whenever you’re ready. Make sure to keep up with what you eat. Remember we’re trying for green and not grease…”

Louis hangs his head back, exposing his neck. “But grease is so delicious! Pizza is amazing. So are chips!”

“You can eat those things if you want, Louis, but it’s going to be a lot harder than if you just avoided them for now. And remember Saturday is cheat day! Eat whatever you like. Don’t feel like you can never eat that stuff again.”

“Easy for you to say, Mr. Tall, Thin, Toned and…Curly.” Louis mutters. Harry shakes his head. Louis has no idea how unhealthy he used to be as a teenager. He’s going to ignore the part where Louis nicknamed him based on his hair.

“I love pizza too, Lou. And pasta. Oh and I love _every_ kind of cake. Literally all of them! I used to work in a bakery. Trust me, I _know_ cakes.” That pulls a full laugh out of Louis and it makes a warm feeling spread through his chest.

“What was your favorite then?”

“Ugh! It’s cruel to make me choose just one! You don’t understand. I’ve never turned down a slice of cake! It’s a serious problem.”

Louis is still laughing at him and it’s so wonderful to know that Louis thinks he’s funny. It’s nice to know that they get each other.

“It sounds like it’s serious. Well I guess if you can get your pastry obsession in order then I can try to eat more fruits and veggies right?”

Louis is still smiling and trying to contain his laughter when Harry tells him goodbye and walks him to the door. All eyes are on him when he heads to the desk. He skillfully ignores every one of them. “So what’s there to eat around here?” he asks likes he wasn’t just openly flirting with his new client.

“Hmm I don’t know… I hear you’re very fond of _cakes_ these days. Maybe we can order a few and have at it.”

“Were you listening to us?! How the hell did you even hear that?!” he asks Niall bewildered.

“I’ve got ways, Styles.”

And that’s the only explanation he gives before he hops down off the counter and grabs the phone. “I’m ordering pizza again. Say one rude thing and you get none.” He warns, eyeing all three of them.

Zayn rolls his eyes and continues folding towels. “One rude thing.”

*

 “In coming, Haz!”

Liam’s warning startles him out of the daydream he was just having and he shoots up from the floor. He doesn’t know why his heart is hammering in chest like this. It’s just Lucas, it’s not like it’s…somebody else.

“It’s not even time for Louis to be here yet,” he laughs taking out Lucas’ file and handing it to him. “Calm it down.”

 “I am calm!” Harry says bit too loud and not at all convincing. Liam laughs at him when he and Lucas take off for the cycling room.

The days Louis isn’t scheduled to show up quickly become some of the longest he’s ever endured. Not that he doesn’t love all his clients, he does, there’s just something about working with Louis.

The next time Louis comes in Harry is bouncing on his toes in anticipation. “Hey Haz!” Louis says, giving Harry his now customary quick one armed hug thing he gives.

Harry is smiling to himself the whole way over to the treadmills until Louis’ voice turns soft and catches his attention.

“So, I uh…kind of fell off the wagon a bit.” Harry stops what he’s doing and turns to him, nodding so he’ll continue. “I went out with some mates and I _really_ really tried to limit how many drinks I had, but the more I drank the less I cared, and then I _needed_ the pizza from across the street. Like it was basically calling my name, it smelled so good! I had just few bites with some lads and when I sobered up I realized I had eaten about four slices…” Louis raises his eyebrows, his mouth in a tight line but a small smile is visible. “Whoops?”

Harry is replaying Louis’ words in his head and he stops to mull over a few parts of the story. In all honesty, that little slip up probably didn’t do too much damage, but it is still a lot of calories and carbs for one evening…He should probably ask Louis what kind of drinks he had since some are worse for you than others. And what was that about eating pizza with some guys?? What guys? Friend guys? Just met you at a pub and now I’m eating an entire pizza because I’m trying to go home with you guys?

“It’s alright. It’s weigh day anyway so we can see what kind of progress you’ve made and then we can adjust things from there. Sound good?”

Louis blinks a few times, frowns, then smiles warily. “Sure...” He shakes his head still looking unsure. The corners of his mouth turn up just a bit. “I thought you’d be mad at me. You’re not right?”

Harry doesn’t know why he suddenly feels the need to touch Louis but he does it. He holds Louis’ wrist lightly in one hand, the other resting on Louis’ shoulder. “I’m not a priest Louis, just your trainer. You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to.” He waits till Louis is done laughing at him and rolling his eyes. “I am glad you feel comfortable enough to tell me when you mess up though.”

They head to the scale after Louis’ workout and Harry has to read it alone because Louis refuses to look at it.

“Do you want good news or not so bad news first?”

“Ughhhh!” Louis drops his head down, eyes still shut tight, hair hanging to swipe against his cheeks. “Good news I guess.”

“So, your night of fun, drinks, and calories didn’t really do much damage.”

Louis’ head whips toward him and he cracks one eye open. “Really?”

“Really.” Harry tells him.

Louis opens both eyes now to look at him. “Okay… then what’s the bad news?”

“Don’t call it bad news! It’s not technically bad …” Louis stares at him like he’s an alien.

“Just tell me what the bad news is.”

“You may have gained a pound…” Harry says very slowly but quickly rushes to calm Louis’ nerves when he sees his look of panic swiftly change to defeat. “But that’s not terrible considering you’ve only been working out three days a week to combat the extra calories you consume! A pound is nothing in the long run, and you had lost three already, so it’s not that bad.”

Louis looks unconvinced and slumps down to the floor. “That pizza wasn’t even that good! Why didn’t I just stop at one slice?!” Harry slides down to sit with him, smiling to himself at the devastation in his voice.

“If it wasn’t even as delicious as you thought it would be, maybe next time you’re out you’ll think about this and make better food choices. This is a learning experience.” He tries.

Louis nods but he still looks upset with himself. Harry shouldn’t say it. Really, he should not tell Louis what he’s thinking, but his mouth starts moving before he even has time to think about it. “I think you look prefect the way you are, Louis. Even if you gained a hundred pounds or you ate ten pizzas… you’d still be perfect.”

He turns to meet Harry’s eyes and wow, they are much closer than Harry realized. He gets caught up watching Louis’ shy smile appear and he has to force himself to look at the floor and put a few inches of space between them before he does something incredibly stupid.

“Thanks, Harry.”

Harry hopes his face isn’t as flushed as it feels. “Of course. I’m just telling you the truth, Lou.”

*

It wasn’t until Harry was out running one morning that he got the idea to invite Louis to join. Sure, technically he’s never worked with gym members outside of the actual gym, but there’s no rule against it (not that he’s aware of anyway), and plus Louis might enjoy being outdoors rather than inside a stuffy building running in place. And also, Louis could always say no and tell Harry to fuck off, so there’s that.

He brings it up one day after he’s sure none of the boys are there to eavesdrop and no one else is paying them any attention. Louis is just getting off the treadmill when Harry mentions it in what he hopes is a professional-verging-on-casual tone; probably not though.

“So, I run...” Harry watches Louis face for reactions. When he doesn’t see one he continues. “I mean, I run in the mornings by my flat, on a trail. It’s nice to be outside and all, and none of the other boys will get up that early, but if you’re interested we can try that. It’s just a suggestion of course. You don’t- you don’t have to.”

Harry is a little winded by the time he spits all that out. He waits for Louis’ response and it feels more like he just asked the man to a school dance instead of a training session.

Louis fails to hide a huge grin, his eyes lighting up. “Um I would love to try that…” he pauses and Harry is sure his lungs should be doing a much better job at breathing for him. “I don’t think I can keep up with you at a full run though, so I’ll probably slow you down.”

“No we’ll take it slow. You can jog if you like. I’ll jog with you.”

Louis shrugs and Harry watches the golden skin of his shoulders rise and fall. He’s smiling, still pretending to be less interested than he actually is. “You’re the boss. If you think I can handle it then I trust you.”

“It’ll be great!” Harry promises.

*

“I hate you and this entire park.” Louis crosses his arms waiting for Harry to finish stretching. He looks like he’s still half asleep, and that’s worrisome considering he drove all the way here. Harry chuckles at his emotionless face, void of all things except contempt.

“You’ll feel better once we get into it.” He promises again. This time Louis scoffs.

“You mean my lungs will be on fire once we get into it.”

 Just as Harry thought, Louis attitude improved as the morning went on and sun started to peek out over the horizon. He kept a moderate jogging pace to make sure Louis could keep up, checking in on him every ten minutes or so to make sure he was alright. When they hit four miles he doesn’t even say anything when Louis flops down on the dirt to rest. He deserved it for how hard he just worked.

“I can’t believe I have to go home and shower after I just did all of that. And I still have to be at work at eight!”

“Yeah but now you’ve started your day off in a great way and you won’t feel so restricted by your food choices.”

“Do you always have a silver lining for everything?”

“Do you always _complain_ about everything?” Harry teases right back.

“Maybe.” Louis grins. “I like your silver linings. Most people only focus on the negative but you don’t. I like that about you.”

Harry feels his stomach flip flop around and he immediately places a palm over it. He hasn’t had butterflies in there for a very long time, but he loves the feeling.

*

“You should come! If you don’t have any other plans, or anything. But you probably do since it’s such short notice…”

“No! I’m not! I’m…” Zayn takes a breath then starts again, this time sounding less like a crazed idiot. “I’m not busy later, really. I’d love to come.”

Niall snorts into his hand somewhere to Harry’s left and Liam shoves him to keep him quiet. They’ve been watching this train wreck for ten grueling minutes. As hilarious as it is to watch, they’re just glad Zayn is still breathing considering when Perrie first invited him to her art show he stood there and gawked at her like he couldn’t process it.

“You’re sure?” she asks. She adjusts her bag on her shoulder and Harry can see the makings of a smile from where he’s standing. “I’m kind of low-key trapping you into complimenting my paintings. You can say no.” she laughs.

They all gasp when Zayn takes a bold step forward and touches her hand; even Niall stops snickering to pay more attention. “I want to come. And I know your paintings will be amazing. I’ll only compliment them because they’re brilliant.”

She blushes and Harry has to admit that they are adorable. “Hope you still feel that way tonight.” She jokes and pulls out her phone, handing it to Zayn for him to put in his number. “Just so I can text you the address.” She says and Zayn nods as he types it in then calls himself.

“So I’ll see you later I guess?” she asks stuffing it back in her bag and turning on her heel.

He keeps nodding like his head is on a continuous vertical track. He doesn’t even respond when she tells him goodbye at the door. He wanders over to the front desk like he’s in a dream.

“That went very well.” Liam offers.

“Text her!” Niall is bouncing on his feet reaching for Zayn’s phone. “Now you have an excuse!”

Zayn rolls his eyes. “She just wants to text me the address. It’s not an open invitation to annoy her whenever I feel like it.” He slumps down into a chair, dreamy expression quickly fading away into doubt.

“Like hell it isn’t! She invited _you_. She asked for _your_ number. She smiled and blushed and flirted all while talking to _you_. You’re both in love with each other; she just had the balls to do something about it.”

Zayn looks horrified, searching around for Harry and Liam to come to his rescue.

“Niall has a point. Girls don’t flirt with guys they don’t like.” Liam reasons, clapping Zayn on the shoulder.

He turns to Harry, the last person whose opinion he cares about. “Get on with it. We all know you’re going to anyway.” He shrugs.

\---

“Tell me- _shit!_ \- Tell me what it’s like to- to look sculpted by Donatello himself. Bet it’s awesome. Can’t wait to- to get there.” Louis is wheezing next to him, mostly due to the fact that he keeps asking Harry dozens of questions and isn’t breathing through his nose like Harry told him to. He’s just filling up space with his voice to pass the time like he has been these last couple of weeks. Harry must admit that he doesn’t mind it.

“Would you stop saying that?” Harry laughs and nearly trips himself up on a dislodged stone in the pathway. “I had baby fat years! They were dark times, Louis… _dark_.”

“Seeing is believing, mate. Pics or it didn’t happen.” Louis wipes at his face with the hem of his shirt and Harry mentally scolds himself when his head automatically turns toward him.

“ _I_ don’t even look at pictures of myself from then. I’m not letting those things see the light of day.”

“Oh come on, Curly! Show me! It’ll be therapeutic.”

Harry shakes his head at him. “Looking at my chubby pictures is _therapeutic_?”

“Mmmm… Educational?”

Harry focuses on not tripping this time when he laughs. “Don’t think that’s the word you’re looking for either…”

“No, they’re _inspirational_! Yes, inspirational. So I can see what the future holds for me if I keep at it.”

Harry wants to tell Louis he already looks a thousand times better than Harry ever did or ever will. He wants to say that Louis’ body is already an inspiration all on its own, but he’s learned that Louis doesn’t listen very well. There are other ways to motivate him though. “How about this… You get up to a run by the end of next week and I’ll drag out all the teenage pictures I have so you can laugh at my fat cheeks and my bad hair.”

“I would never laugh at you. You underestimate me, Harold.”

“You underestimate the size of my cheeks when I was fifteen.” He quips back.

 

Louis has to weigh in the next day since he hasn’t been near a scale in almost two weeks. Since then he started jogging indoors as well as outdoors, sometimes working out twice a day. This should go much better than before.

“You want to look this time?”

Louis actually looks nervous this time around. Instead of joking around and being all dramatic he’s quiet and not really looking Harry in the eye as he nods a few times then gingerly steps on.

They wait till the numbers adjust themselves and then Louis is taking a deep breath which swells his chest even more when he reads the digits in front of him.

He swings his gaze over to Harry when he registers his own weight. “Is that right? It says I lost two and a half pounds?”

“You did! You’re reading it right, Louis. You made progress! You can stop being all anxious.”

He lets out a breath and steps down from the scale, grin as wide as Harry has ever seen it. “Thank God! I overdid it on some pasta a few nights ago and had a cupcake for breakfast one morning. I thought that might’ve done me in! I was worried there for a bit.”  


He lets Louis enjoy the satisfaction of all his hard work for a few minutes, then he regrettably has to interrupt it. Louis did make some progress, yes, but considering how hard he’s been working these two weeks it should have at least been four pounds, if not five. It’s got to be what he’s eating.

“I think we should talk about food again just to be sure we’re covering all aspects of this.”

Louis’ head falls back and a great sigh escapes his perfect mouth. “I knew you were going to say that!” He whines, slumping down to the floor pulling his shirt up to wipe at his face, making Harry mentally slap himself for allowing his eyes to rake over his skin this time. Louis must catch him because he’s grinning when he lets it fall.

“I won’t give up pasta, Harry. That’s where I put my foot down.”

“I don’t want you to,” Harry shakes his head, amusement clear on his face even though he’s trying to have a serious conversation here. Louis doesn’t really do serious though so it’s hard.

“What should I do then?” Louis asks, this time not as a joke, but as a genuine inquiry. And that’s just it, Harry isn’t sure what to do. The man pays a delivery man for everything he consumes; it’s bound to put a dent in his progress if he keeps that up. There has to be a way though.

The solution he settles on is a little unorthodox and he would never suggest it to any other clients he’s ever had, but this is Louis and it’s just… different somehow. Louis is different.

“When we started working together you told me you don’t cook because you don’t know how…” he ignores Louis’ eye roll and continues on. “Well, what if I show you?”

Louis’ eyes narrow at him. “Show me what exactly? My skills go as far a microwave, Harold.”

“That’s what I mean. I can teach you basic cooking skills so instead of take away every night you can cook on your own sometimes. I could teach you,” He searches Louis’ face for any clues to aversion but it’s pretty blank. “Only if you want of course.” He flashes Louis his most charming smile hoping to win him over.

 

 

*

“Are you sure this is even allowed?” Liam asks for the millionth time in the last twenty minutes. Harry continues to rake through his hair, trying and failing at completely ignoring him, rolling his eyes at him in the mirror.

“You say it like I’m committing a crime. It’s beneficial to progress, Li. Why wouldn’t it be allowed? There isn’t any rule book.” He doesn’t have time for this at the moment. He’s supposed to be at Louis’ in ten minutes and his hair isn’t doing at all what it normally does.

Liam’s brown eyes meet his in the mirror and he pulls a few of Harry’s curls rather harshly. “LI! What was that for?!”

“For being snappy when I’m only trying to help. You’re playing _innocent trainer_ a little too well. You and I both know this is about more than just _progress_. I mean, you’ve been messing with your hair for almost fifteen minutes and it still looks the exact same.”

He lets out a frustrated sigh when he realizes that his hair does look the same as when he started. It might even be more of a mess than before. “Why are you doing this to me? I’m just doing my job-”

“You mean you just really like Louis...” Liam smirks at him, waiting for Harry to agree or even acknowledge his words.

“Wow. Thanks for the subtlety, Liam. You are such a great person.”

“Your hair looks perfect by the way.” Liam tells him right before he leaves Harry’s bathroom.

\----

When Louis agreed to him coming over with pink cheeks and a smile that refused to fade, Harry texted him and the pitter-patter feeling in his chest had him feeling invincible.

He had hoped for the best and hadn’t really thought too far into inviting himself over to Louis’ flat, but he surely didn’t think Louis would tell him to come over to his flat the next day. He thought he had more time. He thought he could prepare, but no. Now he’s standing in front of his door, trainers feeling tight on his feet, his hand aching from the bag he carried up the stairs, and a warm flush speeding its way down his neck and disappearing beneath his shirt.

His free fist goes to knock but then it falls to hang by his side like a deflated balloon. He really is here to help Louis, but he can’t shake the fact that Liam might have been right. Maybe he _is_ taking advantage. Maybe this _isn’t_ even allowed and now he’s going to get in trouble for weaseling his way into Louis’ home with less than innocent intentions.

Turning back now could be an option, but as soon as he thinks it he sees a shadow moving from beneath the other side of the door. He doesn’t have time to think of a plan and ends up floundering with his mouth open when the door flies open and Louis is greeting him with a bright grin stretching across his face.

“HARRY! I thought I heard someone shuffling out here. Come teach me your ways! Come in!”

Louis yanks him over the threshold and guides him through the sitting room and into the kitchen which smells faintly of bleach. It’s obvious from the shiny countertops that Louis just cleaned the place.  His fingers only let go of Harry’s forearm when they’re standing in the center of the room, tiled floor spotless and gleaming. It’s a lot bigger than his and Liam’s kitchen at home. There are no signs of recent use laying around probably due to the fact that Louis never cooks in it.

“So what are you cooking?” he asks, flopping down into a chair over on the other side of the room. Harry eyes quickly take inventory of every piece of skin Louis is currently flashing, from his golden shoulders peeking out from his shirt, down to the bit of thigh showing from the way he sat down. He’s completely staring when Louis clears his throat, smirk on full display with one teasing eyebrow raised probably waiting for an answer.

“You mean what are _we_ cooking?” Harry asks a few beats too late.

Louis slouches down in his seat, not at all helping the whole exposed thigh situation currently going on. “I thought you were joking…you’re really expecting me to do this??”

Louis is so delightfully adorable being difficult just for the sake of it. Harry would kiss him right now if he could, simply for being ridiculous and looking good while doing it. He wants to say it, but of course he can’t so he pulls out his trainer personality instead. “You really expect to meet your goals while eating an extra-large calzone from the Italian restaurant down the street?”

Louis’ smirk drops and then he’s frowning, mouth down-turned and solemn. “You hit me where it hurts, Haz. You _know_  how I feel about Italian food. I don’t attack you with mentions of cake and pastries.”

“Stop trying to distract me!” he laughs. “We are going to bake chicken and you’re going help.” 

Louis drags himself up from his chair to stand next to him. He walks till their toes almost touch then follows Harry’s eyes as they dart around every part of his face except his lips. Why is Louis this close to him? Surely he knows what this is doing to him, right? If his feelings for Louis are as obvious as everyone says they are then he must know. It takes a large portion of Harry’s will to scoot back a bit and actually say something relevant.

“Any questions before we start?” he eventually gets out. Louis’s eyes are bright and amused listening to his flustered reply, smirking like this is a game.

“I sure hope you brought good ingredients, Styles, because all I own is black pepper, ketchup, and jam…”

The words catch up to him a bit late and Harry is reminded of the bag of food he is still clutching in his fist. He nods, and Louis brushes against his back when he walks toward the counter. The touch could be seen as a friendly accident, but somehow Harry knows it wasn’t.

 

After twenty minutes of ‘but why do _I_ have to touch it?!’ and ‘are you just guessing? How do you know when it’s done?’, they successfully have lemon zest chicken baking away while Harry sits out dishes and supervises Louis chopping vegetables. He always thought Zayn in the kitchen was scary, but that was before he witnessed Louis with a knife.

“Still got all of your fingers over there?” Harry asks when he no longer hears the sound of the blade hitting the cutting board. He figures everything is fine since Louis isn’t screaming in anguish and spewing blood all over the kitchen tile.

“You know, you’re not so cute when you’re being a smart arse.” Harry nearly drops a plate. Did he just hear that correctly? “Is this right?” Louis asks all of a sudden sounding unsure.

Harry comes to look over his shoulder, staring at the huge pieces of fresh broccoli, all florets with the light green stem laying ignored on the side. “What about this part? This is edible too…here, I’ll show you how to cut it…” Louis makes a face when Harry grips the knife handle around his small fingers, but it’s only after a few seconds that Harry notices it isn’t a look of annoyance, but a show of nerves.

Harry bites down on his smirk, moving to stand closely behind Louis, using his hands to guide Louis’. There’s a fleeting moment when he wonders what the hell he is doing invading this boy’s space this way. He would never even think to do this with Lucas or any of his other clients, but Louis doesn’t seem to mind if his bated breaths are anything to go by. Harry feels him lean back a bit into his chest.

“I’m not a child, you know? I _am_ older than you.” Louis states it a lot less challengingly than he probably meant to. It just makes Harry’s grasp more secure around him. He situates the broccoli stem in one of Louis’ hands and angles the knife to hover right above it. He guides Louis’ wrist and fingers beneath his own as he smoothly slices a few pieces.

He’s pressed so close against him that his jaw is resting right by his ear. He takes advantage of the proximity, talking almost directly into his skin. “I know. I’m just trying to help, Lou.” He sees Louis’ skin turn a delicious shade of pink out of the corner of his eye and he takes delight in the fact that it’s not just him who is struggling here. Louis is just as affected as he is, Louis is just better at hiding it most of the time.

Blatant flirting takes a back seat when dinner has finished cooking, and Louis’ first health conscious home cooked meal is steaming on the table.

It starts out pretty quiet. That is until Louis gets bored and starts his favorite pastime of one sided twenty questions. “Why’d you become a personal trainer?”

It’s not the first time a client has asked him this. Most people are pretty curious to know how he just woke up one day and decided to make people exercise for a living. He wonders half the time as well.

“I didn’t mean to be. I started working at the gym when Liam told me about an open position there. I never really saw myself as fit or athletic or anything, but I realized I really liked it and I like to help people. They needed an extra trainer at the gym so I took some classes and now here I am.”

“You didn’t think you were athletic enough?”

“Well I wasn’t,” Harry smiles. “I told you I had chubby days, but I got myself together and now I can help other people.”

Louis nods like he’s taking it all in. He sits down his fork and takes a drink of water.  He waits till Harry is looking at him before starting up again. “Why’d you decide to train me?”

Harry gets that deer in the headlights look for a few seconds. Why _did_ he decide to take Louis on? He’s been stretching himself pretty thin to get all of his clients in each week. Niall could’ve easily worked him in with no problems, but Harry insisted that he be the one. He wants to say he agreed because he likes to help others. He wants to say he thought that his style of training would work best for him. He wants to say something completely unbiased and professional, but he can’t because it’s not true.

“I liked you.” The words leave him slowly and calculated, like he’s just trying them out. He quickly realizes Louis could take that the wrong way and tacks on something else. “I wanted to help you.” It’s not a lie, he did want to help Louis, the fact that he has wanted to kiss him since the day they met is nothing but an insignificant detail.

There’s the beginning of a smile on Louis’ face. “Well I’m glad it all worked out then.”

“I’m glad you’re trying out cooking with me instead of dialing up Chinese. I think you’ll end up loving it after you learn a few more things.” Louis’ eyes playfully roll and Harry gets up when he finishes the last few bites of his meal. He’s almost past him and to the sink when he catches Louis comment.

“I love pretty much everything with you.”

*

Liam gives him a knowing smirk when his phone vibrates on the living room table and he lunges for it like a starved animal. He’s only been waiting around for what seems like forever for Louis to say something to him, so forgive him for being a tad bit on edge. He completely ignores whatever comment it is that Liam makes and flips over on the couch so his back is facing him.

_What are we cooking tomorrow :)_

Harry’s lips slowly spread into a grin. He can feel his face heating up against the pillow. He makes himself wait a whole three minutes before replying. _‘Whatever you’d like. What are you in the mood for?’_ He guesses Louis must be tracking his response time as well because it’s three whole minutes before he answers.

_‘Can pizza please be an option??’_

He’s sure Liam is rolling his eyes somewhere on the seat across from him when he hears Harry snort back a laugh. _‘Yes haha. I should’ve guessed. It’s only your favorite after all...we’ll go shopping when I get there?_ ’

 _‘Okay, sounds good.’_ And then, _‘I’ll see you in the morning right?’_

Harry’s stomach does some kind of flippy thing when he reads Louis’ question. Between waiting around for his phone to vibrate and laughing at Louis touching raw meat he almost completely forgot about the park. _‘Yep! Bright and early! As long as you still want to of course.’_

Louis answers him right away this time _. ‘Yeah I want to. I kind of like being outside now…Don’t tell anyone.’_

He’s contemplating just how to answer back when his phone vibrates again. _‘I should probably get to bed since you’re going to torture me in the morning…have a goodnight! See you tomorrow! :)’_

_‘We’ll take it slow! See you! Goodnight!’_

He’s scrolling back through their conversation like a fifteen year old, smiling at the carefully constructed way Louis danced around straight up asking to see him the next day; then again Harry could be completely wrong and Louis really was just curious about their workout schedule, but Harry would much rather pretend that Louis wants to see him. He’s still grinning like an idiot when Liam’s shadow hovers over him out of nowhere.

“Who are we smiling about? Or do I even need to ask?” Harry lifts the pillow from under him and swings it to hit Liam in the chest. Liam doesn’t even budge and laughs at him instead.

\---

Louis doesn’t complain as much as usual when they set off at a much quicker pace than Harry promised. He keeps sneaking these tiny looks over at Harry like he’s checking to make sure he’s still there or something. Louis keeps up right beside him, matching Harry step for step.

He takes advantage of this oddly quiet version of Louis and speeds up a bit just to see if he can handle it. Louis is still completely in his own head and adjusts his pace and breathing to meet him. Harry keeps upping it little by little until they’re both at a full run and Louis doesn’t even notice. When he takes another sneaky glance at Harry he frowns, trying to figure out why Harry is grinning so stupidly at him.

“What?” he asks, not even gasping for air like he used to. His breaths are deep and loud, much more so than Harry’s, but they’re even and through his nose, and that in and of itself is a major improvement from the last time they tried this.

“Do you notice anything about your running?” Harry can’t wipe the smile away making Louis even more confused.

Louis looks down at his feet and legs still frowning. “No?... What?”

“Did you notice that I said running and not jogging?”

Recognition washes over Louis’ face and then he’s smiling just as big as Harry. “And I’m not even dying! I mean, I am tired and I still hate you and this park, but I’m not dying for air or tripping over rocks!”

They both laugh, but try to keep the pace. After nine or ten minutes Louis’ speed starts to slow and he’s struggling to keep up so Harry backs it down to a nice jog till they reach the entrance of the park again.

Louis bends over to catch his breath, his palms resting on his thighs as his hair hangs over into his face. He doesn’t see Harry coming and smiles when his hand touches his back.

“How’re you feeling?” Harry sneakily swipes his hand across his shoulder blades as he waits for his answer.

“Mostly dead sore but good!” The moment of triumph lasts only a little while then it’s replaced by self-doubt written all over his face when he stands up and swipes his hair away from his eyes. “I didn’t think I could ever do that.” He gives Harry that self-satisfied proud look he gets from all of his clients whenever they reach a goal or accomplish something they never thought they could. He’s seen plenty of looks like that, but this is the first one to carve a warm river of pride through his chest. They’re still gazing right at each other when Harry’s nervous grin breaks the moment and he has to look away. “What’s wrong?” Louis smiles when he will no longer meet his eyes.

“I’m just really proud of you, Lou.”

*

“Leaving work before everyone else, coming straight home to shower, spending actual time messing with your hair, and a bag full of uncooked food in your hands…Should I even guess where you’re headed or are we past playing that game by now?”

He doesn’t know why he let Niall in. It never ends well for him. “Lock my door until Liam gets here. Don’t eat all of our food, and if you take a nap in my bed please fix my sheets back the way they were and take your shoes off.”

Niall rolls his eyes and stuffs another mozzarella stick into his mouth. “Who says I’d nap in your bed anyway. I’d go to Liam’s bed. He has candles in there. It smells nice…Hey! TELL LOUIS I SAY HI!” he shouts as Harry closes the door in the middle of his pointless soliloquy.

When he arrives Louis greets him with the same one armed hug he usually gives, talking excitedly about something Harry isn’t even paying attention to because Louis’ shirt is cut low and he looks like he just woke up. It’s hard to pay attention to much else other than that.

He sits all the food items and dishes out that they’ll use and the dinner routine begins just like always, except now he doesn’t have to spend time throwing out take away boxes still left in the fridge like he did the first time he came over. He assigns Louis the job of chopping things while he supervises and gets things started. They’ve been doing this for weeks and now Louis barely whines when Harry makes him touch raw meat or crack eggs.

He hasn’t made Louis weigh himself in weeks, but even without the scale Harry can tell that he’s making progress. He can tell it by the way he can better see the muscles sculpted beneath his skin and how his jaw line looks just a bit more precise at certain angles. He looks even more amazing than before, and he didn’t think that was possible.

He figured he deserves a break for doing so well lately, so he picked up some ice cream on the way over. Louis face melted into astonishment then disbelief and right back into astonishment when Harry handed him a bowl filled with chocolatey goodness.

“What if this fucks up my progress?” He eyes the bowl skeptically then looks back up at Harry. “Maybe I shouldn’t…”

“You deserve it. It won’t ruin anything, it’s just one bowl.” Harry scoops a couple of mounds into a bowl of his own and immediately starts to eat it. “You’re going to make me eat this all by myself?” he licks around the spoon more than he really needs to then dives back in for another bite. “Mmmm! I’m already two bites in and you haven’t even started. Better hurry, Lou.”

Louis’ still looking at it like it’s a trap but takes a small bite. Harry doesn’t expect the soft moan he makes when it slides down his throat and he scoops up another mouthful, eyes fluttering shut when he tastes it on his tongue. Harry’s mouth is hanging open by the time Louis is finished, his own ice cream and spoon left forgotten in his bowl. Louis grins at him when his spoon clatters into his bowl and he hops up, licking over his lips.

“It’s melting, Curly. Shouldn’t let good things go to waste.” He saunters over to the sink, Harry’s eyes glued to him the entire time. He has to adjust the way he’s sitting before he can even consider finishing dessert. Like Louis can sense him watching, he turns and smirks right at him.

\---

It feels like déjà vu when he glances over and sees Niall, Zayn, and Liam all crowded at the desk area, pretending to not listen to him being a complete idiot. He sees Louis nearly every single day, sometimes more than once, and even that wasn’t enough to prepare him for Louis inviting him out with his friends. Is this how Zayn felt when it was him and Perrie standing in this very spot, awkwardly negotiating their first outing together? If so, he owes Zayn an apology because having all those eyes on you at a time like this is not helpful at all.

“Did you hear me, Haz? It’d just be for a couple of hours, but I understand if you’ve got other stuff to do, you know with you being a busy trainer and all. I know you have other clients.”

It still takes him a minute for his brain to process. Louis wants him to go out with him. With his friends. To hangout. To watch out for him like he does every night at dinner. He repeats this over and over again but the only thing he’s stuck on Louis wants him to go out with him.

“Yeah Lou, I’ll be there. What time?”

“Just come by around nine. We’ll leave from mine around then.”

They just stare at each other for a few beats until Louis leans in and hugs him goodbye. Harry is very aware of his friends staring at them and his face flushes even more than it normally would have.

“See you, Haz! Be on your toes tonight! I’m likely to drink the whole bar! ” he laughs and Harry’s neck and chest suddenly feel very warm. He tells Louis bye seconds too late when he’s already out the door.

“It’s not fun is it?” Zayn smirks at him. “At least Niall wasn’t cackling like he did with me.”

“He didn’t cackle but he still laughed.” Liam mummers mostly to himself, digging through the files till he finds the one he needs. “He laughs at everything though.” He comments offhandedly.

“Lads! I am _right here_! I hear you talking about me!” Niall strides over to Harry and hugs him around the middle, pressing his cheek into Harry’s chest. “I did laugh but it’s only because you looked ridiculous. I think you and Louis getting together is great! It’s about damn time if you ask me.”

Harry shakes his head and rushes to correct him. “It’s not like that. I’m just going to keep an eye out for him that’s all. It’s like extended personal training so he doesn’t drunkenly eat a whole pizza at three in the morning.”

They all stare at him like he has grown an extra head. Zayn giggles to himself. “Keep telling yourself that, mate. I was saying the exact same thing a month ago and now look where I am.”

Zayn and Perrie did sort of start out like this, but they’re different. It was obvious Perrie was into him and everybody saw it coming when they started dating. “It’s not like that.” Harry maintains, but they all just grin.

\----

It was weird putting on actual clothes like jeans and boots, considering he rarely does anymore, but that was nothing compared to seeing Louis in something other than joggers and a tank. As soon as he opens the door he notices how firm and muscular his thighs are beneath the black denim, which he knows has come from weeks and weeks of Louis’ hard work. His hair is fixed and looks a lot less wild and more wispy and tamed than he’s ever seen it. His shirt dips down to expose a good part of his chest and Harry’s eyes can’t stray away from the bits of tattoos peeking out over collar and all over his arms. He doesn’t even mean to tell him he looks amazing, it just falls out of his mouth.

“Me?” Louis laughs, “Look at you…you-” He sighs to himself shaking his head. “You look incredible.”

He gets invited inside while Louis finishes up and finds his keys, which he apparently can never find. Harry finds himself standing around not really sure what to do with himself since he’d usually be cooking in the kitchen by now. Louis must know he feels out of place because he looks amused as soon as he’s back with his keys in his hand. Harry’s eyes do another rake over Louis’ body and he quickly looks away so he’s not caught.

“Ready?” Louis asks looking very delighted about something. Harry has no clue what.

He can only nod until his brain tells him talk. “Mmhmm If- If you are.” It’s quiet after that and Louis’ eyes are still shining like he’s in on some joke that no one else knows about. He wanders over till he’s just a step away from him and lightly grabs Harry’s wrist.

“You alright? You seem weird…nervous maybe?”

Of course he’s fucking nervous. Louis has no clue how much of a big deal he has made this night to be in his head. He’s terrified of fucking up somehow. “I’m fine. Just haven’t been out in while.” He tells him innocently enough.

Harry sucks in a sudden breath when Louis tilts his head up and leaves a soft kiss on his jaw. His eyes are like blue diamonds when he steps back and sees how slack Harry’s face has gone. “I’ve got you.” He holds Harry’s eyes for a moment longer then steps around him toward the door. Harry starts walking and that’s when he notices his wrist still in Louis’ hand.

It’s only after he meets all of Louis’ mates that he notices the way he is being introduced to them. Louis just smiles and says ‘This is Harry’. No ‘this is my personal trainer here to make sure I don’t eat everything in sight’ or ‘this is my good mate who sometimes has to supervise me to make sure I’m being good.’ He doesn’t label him at all and yet his friends don’t seem to notice or care. Really Harry shouldn’t care either, but he was kind of hoping to get some sort of clarity tonight about what exactly he is to Louis.

Yes, he works out with Harry like he pays to do, but he also asks to see Harry more than once on most days and tells him about everything from his family to work. They continuously text back and forth and Louis always seems to be flirting with him even when he’s out of breath and drenched in sweat.  They have dinner together almost every night of the week and Harry’s heart almost stopped when Louis kissed his jaw earlier tonight. All those things have to add up to some kind of label…right?

“Alright Styles, which drink will do the least amount of damage? Mixed drink or tequila shot?”

He’s sitting so close Harry can feel the heat radiating off of him. “Definitely the tequila. Most liquors are under a hundred calories.” He answers like an encyclopedia for fitness, health, and intoxication.

“Are you having cheat day with me or am I drinking shots alone?” he grins wickedly trying to peer pressure him. It’s working because Harry doesn’t even take a second to think about it before he’s agreeing.

Louis asks for two shots and hands one off to him. He clinks their glasses together then they both down the liquor in one swallow. “I can’t cheat too much otherwise we’ll both have to get carried out of here.” Harry wheezes out after the burning in his throat doesn’t immediately disappear.

“That’s the plan, Curly!” Louis laughs and orders another two shots for them. “If I get to be drunk then so do you!” He says taking down his other shot, eyebrow raised expectantly for Harry to do the same. 

“I’ll only have three at most…” Harry turns his glass up and swallows it down. “I have to keep an eye on you.” Louis pats his hand resting on the bar then scoots in close to Harry’s ear making him shiver.

“Yeah. Mmmhmm. Of course, love.” He leaves another kiss on his jaw, this time a bit closer to his mouth before grinning and walking to find his Stan.

At some point in the night Harry’s thoughts began to get a bit fuzzy and the light around Louis started to look all hazy and more beautiful than before. He’s not really sure how that happened considering he was supposed to be the voice of reason here, but Louis kept shoving shots in his hand and Harry was more than happy to oblige. Now he’s sat beside Louis, slumped down in a booth, and squinting his eyes at him so he looks serious; because he is. He is very serious.

“We are _very_ drunk, Lou. This isn’t the way we started. _How_?”

Louis giggles for a whole minute before he answers. “You said tequila was less than a hundred calories, that’s how. I think cheat day has gone quite well, myself.”

Harry groans to himself then starts to whine about absolutely nothing. This is why he generally stays sober these days. “But Louiiiis! I’m supposed to be the responsible one here! Stan is more sober than me right now! Look at him!” Louis does sit up for a few seconds to look across the room and spot Stan and the rest of his mates smirking and waving back at him. “I fucked up didn’t I? That was the whole reason you invited me, and I fucked it up. I’m sorry. I’m a terrible trainer. I should’ve let Niall take you.”

Louis’ eyes light up and he starts to laugh but not before grabbing Harry by the shoulders and making him look directly at him. “YOU are FANTASTIC at your job! I love working with you…being with you. I love- I love a lot of things about you being my trainer okay?” Louis eyes flit away when his pep talk turns more serious than it started.

Harry is not convinced though so he just groans again and sinks further down into his seat.  “At least you haven’t eaten ten plates of lasagna or anything. There’s always that, I guess.” He mutters still childishly pouting.

“I’m not _that_ drunk, Harold. And I’m sure I would puke after the first three platters anyway.” Harry nods like this is a great observation. “Annnnd,” Louis drags out, “I wanted you here tonight because I wanted you here. It has nothing to do with anything you just said. I wasn’t even going to come unless you came with me so…glad you agreed. I’m having a good time.” He stares at Harry until he’s sure he has heard him then he’s smiling again. “And I would most definitely _gain_ weight with Niall. I’ve seen the way he eats, it’s worse than me. I don’t get how he’s so toned…”

Harry sighs long and hard. “None of us will ever understand. He ate a gallon of ice cream for lunch one day then took a two hour nap in my bed. He has abs.” he shrugs making Louis’ hands rise and fall with his shoulders.

Louis bursts out into a fit of giggles then leans back against the booth. He rests what is probably an innocent hand on Harry’s stomach, still holding his gaze. “Yours are better.”

After waiting for their cab and saying goodbye to Louis’ friends for twenty minutes, they’re finally pulling up to Louis’. He watches Louis orient himself and pay the driver when they stop at the curb. He opens the door and turns to meet Harry’s eyes.

“Are you coming or are you sleeping in this lovely car tonight?” he grins looking very sleepy and worn.

“I’ll just come get my car tomorrow…I’ll have Liam drive me.” He says very matter-of-factly. Louis gives him the flattest expression he’s ever seen.

“Is this one of those ‘I’m your personal trainer so I have to be boring’ kind of things because I’d rather have that conversation while I’m snuggled into my bed if I’m honest.”

Harry is sure there are reasons why he’s not supposed to succumb to Louis’ proposition; there must be, but right now he can’t think of a single one. “Okay.” He agrees. Louis’ grin is all he can focus on when he suddenly crawls back inside the cab. He slides across the seat until he’s kneeling right next to him, leaning in to leave a very deliberate and very soft kiss on Harry’s lips. It only lasts a few seconds and it may the most gentle touch he’s ever felt, but it leaves him breathless all the same.

Louis grins a bit then slides back out and onto the sidewalk holding the door open for him. “You coming?” The question jolts life back into Harry’s veins and then he’s sliding out of the car behind him. He’s glad it’s so dark inside Louis’ building so he can’t tell how ridiculously giddy his face looks.

“So exactly how difficult are you about to make this?” Louis asks when he closes and locks his front door and kicks off his shoes.  “If you want you can have the couch, but I’m offering my bed…of course I will be in it as well so, there’s that. Choose wisely I guess.”

Common sense tells him to say couch. It wouldn’t even be that hard to say it; it’s literally one syllable. That is not what he does. “I’m fine sharing if you are.”

Louis nods, clearly satisfied with this choice and leads the way to his room.

Harry’s never been in here before, and he would love to take the time to look around but right now Louis is stripping out of his clothes and Harry refuses to take his eyes off of him. “You take the wall side,” the words are a bit muffled when he pulls off his shirt. “You need clothes or are you alright?”

He’s down to nothing but boxer briefs. He’s beautiful and golden and everything Harry has ever considered to be good in life. Louis waves a hand to get his attention. “Oh! I’m fine. Wall’s fine. It’s all-”

“Fine?” Louis finishes for him. He bites down on his grin and heads to brush his teeth.

They crawl under the covers and Harry has keep telling himself to chill out and not make a big deal out of this. So Louis may have kissed him less than fifteen minutes ago. So he may be lying less than three centimeters away from him in bed. That’s no reason to lose sleep because his drunken brain is too sleepy to understand what’s going on.

Louis rustles around beside him then finally finds a position and stays there. He sighs contentedly and tells Harry goodnight. When he says it back Louis reaches down and lightly links their fingers together between them. Harry thinks it’s the best feeling in the world to fall asleep to. His drunken brain definitely understands that.

\---

Morning brings Harry to full alertness and a slight case of disorientation when he wakes up and his arm is draped completely over Louis’ back, looping under his small waist. He notices it’s a lot firmer than when Louis first joined the gym. He takes a brief moment to take pride in knowing Louis’ body is changing the way Louis wants it to.

He moves to avoid waking him when he scrambles across the bed to get to the toilet. His head feels heavy in the after effects of multiple shots and little sleep, but it’s not enough to stop him from digging through Louis’ closet to find another pair of trainers to slip on. He opens and closes all his drawers until he finds a whole ensemble suitable for running then sits on the edge of the bed, mesmerized by the golden skin of Louis’ back against the soft  white of the sheets.

He hates to do it, but this is their normal run time, tequila hangover or not. “Lou.”

He doesn’t move at all, only his deep breaths audible in the quiet room. Harry isn’t sure how the two of them 'work' in sober daylight, but he leans over to lightly rub across the indentations of Louis’ skin with little hesitation. He even leans far enough so he can leave a few kisses there just because he’s always wanted to. “Louis? You awake?”

Louis groans into his pillow as he moves around either trying to wake up or get comfortable enough to drift back off. Harry rubs his back until he finally opens his eyes.

“That feels amazing.” he gives some sort of half grin and sighs. “Why are we up this early? Go back to sleep.” 

“I’m going for a run. Wanted to see if you’d join.”

Louis makes a sound like a dying elephant and sits up, hair sticking up in every direction. “The sun just barely woke up and so did you.” He groans. “Don’t you believe in Saturday hibernation? Don’t you believe in wallowing in your hangover till noon?”

Harry smiles widely, sitting Louis’ trainers beside the bed for him. “Nope.” Louis makes the noise again and flops back down. “Meet you at the door in five minutes?” Harry leaves, shutting the door so Louis can put on some clothes.

 

“This is torture, you know? I mean, who does this to themselves willingly?”

Harry shakes his head and continues stretching. Louis usually rants about morning activity being torture for at least five to ten minutes every time they run. He’s used to it by now. “Have you quite finished?” he smirks and Louis sighs, rolling his eyes.

“Almost.” Louis takes the few steps over to Harry until they’re toe to toe. He leans up and brings their lips together, this time lasting a lot longer than a few seconds. His lips are smooth and cool in the morning air and he tastes like the apple he ate before they left. “Now I’m finished.”

This time when Louis pulls away Harry is still dazed, but he’s aware enough to pull Louis in a second time just to feel him again. They break apart, and now Louis is the one who looks overwhelmed. He smoothes a thumb across the stubble on Louis’ cheek, “Race you.” Harry whispers then takes off, leaving Louis to sleepily stare after him.

*

When Louis shows up a few days later for his scheduled workout Harry is practically bouncing on his feet to meet him at the door. The other boys are all working with clients so no one sees him speed walking to the door like a child.

Louis tells him hello, wrapping his arms around him and squeezing for a few seconds. His eyes linger on Harry’s lips when he pulls away, but for only for a moment. “Ready??” Louis flashes a smirk and walks ahead of him, Harry’s eyes watching him as he enters the locker room and then comes back out to head to the treadmill.

Harry leans up against some other equipment when Louis starts to stretch without being told. He’s tries to separate the Louis he very much wants to touch from the Louis who is paying to work out here, but it’s difficult when he is bending over right in front of him. He even has the nerve to check to see if Harry is watching.

He climbs on and Harry starts it up so Louis is jogging to the beat of the music playing overhead. This feels more familiar. This is how his training sessions with Louis usually go. His eyes get stuck watching Louis’ skin through the large armholes of his shirt; it barely even qualifies as a shirt since he can see most of his torso. His eyes keep traveling down to his bum, bouncing with each stride he takes. Louis coughs into his fist when he catches him.

Harry recovers by assessing Louis’ form. “Are you breathing through your nose, Louis?”

“Are you checking out my arse, _Harry_?” he quips back.

Harry shrugs, unphased as he increases Louis’ speed on the machine. Louis doesn’t miss a beat and adjusts his pace.

Harry guesses that Louis has lost about fifteen pounds by now so he ends his cardio twenty minutes early so Louis can start using the weights. Harry tries him out on a few different weights until he finds the set that’s just right for him, his biceps and chest swelling with each movement. When he guides him over to the thigh press machine he has to use every ounce of concentration he possesses to make sure Louis is doing it correctly. Averting his eyes isn’t even an option when his shorts are riding up and his eyes keep drifting higher and further up Louis’ skin.

The boys are up at the desk after Louis stops by the lockers and meets Harry at the door like usual. Louis shuffles around on his feet before he looks like he’s decided on something in his mind. Next thing Harry knows he gets a kiss on the jaw, dangerously close to his lips. “See you at mine for dinner?”  He lingers for a moment with his eyes stuck on Harry’s lips.

No one teases him when he puts Louis’ file away but they all wear the same shit eating grin. Harry lasts two minutes before the glint in their eyes forces him to talk. “You were all right. Are you happy now? Niall go ahead and be obnoxious about it. I know you want to.”

Niall looks up at him from the computer screen. “I’m shocked, Harry. I would never! I don’t know what you are referring to.”

Liam and Zayn both giggle when Harry floats down to the floor. He’s resting his head against the cabinet door when Niall’s voice reaches him from somewhere above. “I _will_ say you and the boyfriend are the cutest things I’ve ever witnessed. I’m not a hundred percent sure, but you might even be cuter than Zayn and Perrie.”

Zayn pinches him in the side for that. “You’re such a prick. What makes them cuter?”

“Oh I don’t know, maybe the fact that Harry didn’t pinch me!”

Harry laughs at them, running his thumb over the spot Louis just kissed. He listens to his friends bickering around him but his eyes stay glued to the clock willing time to fly.

*

“Do you- you want the dessert?” he breaths out when Louis’s lips start to kiss down his neck, settling somewhere around his collar bones. His back is pushed into the edge of the countertop but he barely even notices with Louis hands wandering over him. He feels like he hasn’t taken a full breath since he walked in the door.

“I want you.” He lightly bites down onto Harry’s chest then licks over it like an apology. It felt good so Harry’s can’t imagine what he’d be apologizing for.

Louis has had his hands on him since he got there, but he hasn’t let Harry move from this spot since they finished eating. His skin is warm and tingly everywhere Louis has been.  He scrapes his fingers down Harry’s torso when he lifts his shirt, his fingers ending up dancing around the space beneath his navel. He should’ve expected it, but he still sucks a sharp breath when his thumb slides over the tip of his cock.

The sound makes Louis freeze for a moment and look at him. He still hasn’t moved his hand though, and Harry wishes he hadn’t made a sound at all so he would continue.

“Is this too fast? I mean, is it too much? Sorry, I should’ve asked…” he begins to apologize and again, Harry has no clue why.

“I don’t think it’s too fast…unless you do.”

“Nope. I’m perfectly fine with everything going on here.” His hand is still motionless around him but his grip is tightening, impatiently waiting for Harry to give him the green light.

“Same. Keep going. Glad we talked about it.” He pulls Louis in by his chin to bring their lips together and that’s when Louis’ hand starts to move around him, heat pooling in his gut.

He works to slide off Louis' joggers which proves to be one of the most difficult tasks he’s ever had to perform because Louis’ hand feels amazing on him. When he finally gets a grip, Louis’ mouth goes slack and his eyes flutter shut, but this time when he moans Harry can fully appreciate the sound. He pulls Louis in again, both their fists working in a steady motion.

He warns Louis when he’s close and soon he spills all over his hand leaning back against the counter while his heart hammers away. He only soaks in the calm for a few seconds before he’s on his knees, watching Louis’ mouth hang open above him. He tastes as good as Harry imagined, sliding in and out between his lips. Louis’ fingers are in his mess of hair but he doesn’t pull like other guys have in the past. They’re just resting there, like an anchor to keep his feet grounded to the kitchen floor.

Harry listens to his breathing picking up and he knows Louis isn’t going to last much longer. He even tells Harry so a minute later, his voice breathless and tight like a spring held tight and about ready to explode. Louis comes down his throat with a hard jerk and a slight tug of Harry’s curls, sinking down to the floor as soon as Harry has swallowed it down.

Harry scoots over next to him, resting his head against the cabinets as well. Louis’ eyes cut over to watch him wiping his lips and he moves to straddle him with his thighs and kiss him. It’s a slippery feeling that plummets into Harry’s stomach again, but then Louis pulls away and runs his fingers through his hair, just gentle touches against his scalp.

“Dessert sounds really good now.” He whispers, kissing Harry’s jaw a couple times. He pulls Harry up by his hand after he’s done adjusting his bottoms back onto his hips.

Harry shakes out his legs to get rid of the tingly feeling still lingering there. “Dessert sounds amazing.”

*

He gets about one full week to have Louis all to himself until the boys start to get impatient. They argue that it’s not fair because Zayn brings Perrie around all the time, and yeah okay they do have a point, but he needs to make sure Louis can handle them all. He’d never forgive Niall if Louis ran in the opposite direction because of something stupid he said or a drinking contest that went wrong.

They ambush him one day when he’s walking out the gym after just kissing Harry goodbye.

“Oh, hello lads!” he greets them when Zayn and Niall rush up to beat him to the door.

“What are you doing for dinner later?” Niall jumps right to the point, waiting with a blank expression. Zayn chokes back a laugh and tries to cover for him.

“He _means_ you’re invited to come hang out if you and Harry want. Liam’s going to grill some stuff so you’re welcome to come. We should chill.”

Harry nods at him when Louis looks back at him for cues. “Okay sure! I’ll just text Harry and I’ll be-”

“Nah don’t bother with him,” Niall interrupts, digging his phone out of his pocket and handing it over. “Give me your number. I’ll text you.” Louis eyes it skeptically then breaks out into a grin and grabs it.

“Good man. Zayn needs it too. It’s only fair.” Niall digs Zayn’s phone out of his back pocket.

“HEY!” he jumps when Niall successfully takes it and hands it over to Louis who is thankfully still smiling and not running _far_ away.

When he finishes typing he hands Zayn his phone back. “Anything else I can do for you lads?”

“Nope. We’ll see you around seven.” Niall claps him on the back, watching him leave.

They walk over to the desk where Harry and Liam are both sitting, mouths hanging open. Harry’s mouth starts moving before he even realizes it. “What the hell was that? I said invite him to eat with us not force him to give you his number...and that was for what exactly?!”

Niall’s sigh drags as he flops down. “Why? Because I need to check him out that’s why.” Harry gives him an incredulous expression and Niall huffs again. “How much can you really know about a person if you don’t text them? Like does he use abbreviations? Does he use emojis? Is he a hashtag abuser? Does he answer right back or wait two days to respond? Tell me those things aren’t important!”

Harry huffs out a frustrated sigh of his own but then he thinks about it and decides maybe Niall’s twisted theory has value…it’s not very likely, but _maybe_. “I text him all the time. doesn’t my judgement count for anything?”

“We know Louis’ cool. He’s a good lad! I’m just making sure. And if he’s going to be _my_ mate then he’s gotta get used to all of us and not just you _. Selfish_.”

“You never harass Perrie like that.” Harry argues.

Zayn snorts back a laugh. “That’s because he knows she would kill him. And so would I.”

Niall grimly shakes his head. “She’s scary sometimes. I don’t know how you do it, Zayn.”

\---

It takes ten minutes for Niall to stop grilling Louis and start cackling as they share a couple of beers in the grass. There are plenty of empty chairs around Zayn’s yard but the two of them would rather be next to each other on the ground than use them. Harry would be jealous of how acquainted they’re becoming  if it weren’t for the looks Louis keeps flashing him when no one is looking.

When they finally get to eat Harry is already sitting down before he remembers he needs to check on Louis. He grabs another beer from the cooler and walks over to hand it to him.

The personal trainer in him sneakily glances over Louis’ food and sees he picked only one kabob and the rest of his plate is full of fresh grilled vegetables. Harry looks at his food back over where he was sitting  and realizes that Louis’ plate is actually healthier than his. How about that…

“Oh! Thanks, Curly.” Louis grins. Harry leans down to drop a quick kiss to the top of his head.

“You’re welcome.”

Niall gags next to them. “Where’s my beer? Where’s my kiss?” Niall mutters to no one in particular. Perrie laughs where she’s sitting between him and Zayn and leans over to kiss Niall’s cheek. She hands him the unopened beer that Zayn handed her earlier.

“There you go,” She says brightly. “I need to drink more water anyway.” She shrugs.

“Always knew I liked you.” Niall tells her. Zayn looks at her like she’s the most wonderful thing he’s ever laid eyes on.

\----

“So did I pass? Do you get to keep me? Did mother Niall approve?” Louis teases him with his teeth scraping over the shell of his ear. Being straddled by Louis so he can touch him however he wants is one of his new favorite activities to participate in. They’ve been in this position on the couch pretty much since they walked through Louis’ door and neither seems up to moving anytime soon.

“I think Niall may like you more than me. Luckily he’s straight, otherwise I’d have to take him out.” Harry runs his palms down Louis’ back till they rest on his bum to pull him in even closer. Their mouths fall open when Louis grinds down into it.

“Jealous?” Louis whispers into his neck, now picking up a nice rhythm with his hips. All of Harry’s attention is drawn right to his crotch and all the ways Louis is moving against him. All the things he could do…

“Only a _\- fuck_ \-  little.”

Louis bites down on his shoulder, slipping a hand beneath himself to feel Harry hardening, squeezing him through his jeans. His hot breath ghosts over the mark he left followed by his tongue. He then moves to Harry’s jaw to mouth at that too. “Don’t be. Niall will never get to do this…” He slips his tongue into his mouth.  “This is only for you.”

Louis grinding into him is too much. His words are overwhelming. They fall from his mouth and surround him like fog, clogging his mind and leaving no room for escape. It only gets worse when Louis kisses him again, moaning directly into his mouth this time making Harry swallow the sound around his tongue.

Harry moves on instinct after that; unzipping Louis and raising him up to his knees so he can slide the denim and cotton down his thighs. Louis seats himself back where he was and continues grinding down, bare skin against Harry’s clothes.

Harry forces fingers in his mouth then reaches around to slide one finger inside of him. Louis gasps, head flying back onto his shoulders when Harry starts massaging inside, eyes on Louis’ mouth hanging uselessly as he moves.

He’s impatient and adds another finger after about a minute, then another when Louis’ hips stutter to a halt from such a burning stretch. Harry didn’t even ask Louis’ permission to do this, so he makes sure to ask before he goes any further.

“Do you want to?” he asks, fingers still moving inside, still massaging. Louis’ voice is strained when he tries to say yes so he nods instead, moving his hips in slow circles again. Harry can only imagine what it’ll feel like to have Louis riding him with those same slow movements.

He pulls his fingers out to work his own bottoms down past his knees. He doesn’t even bother with his or Louis’ shirt, too preoccupied with the way Louis is sliding against him, already anxious to go. “Condoms. Where are they? Lube too.” Louis is still sliding back and forth, Harry’s dick right between his warm cheeks. He barely even hears Louis tell him to look in his bedroom.

It takes a whole lot of willpower to stop Louis and actually move from the couch, but once he’s up he’s practically running to the other room. He digs through Louis’ drawer and is back within the same minute he left. He stops dead when he reaches the couch and sees Louis is hard at work bent over the couch arm, fingers stretching himself more. Harry sits back down in the exact spot he left and rips open the condom, rolling it on and down to the base. He takes his shirt off as an afterthought then squirts lube everywhere when he coats himself. Louis swipes up the excess and rubs it against his hole in tiny circles, eye’s locked on Harry’s.

He feels his stomach tug when Louis abandons the couch arm and comes to sit back on Harry’s lap. He resumes moving against him like he never even stopped, pulling Harry’s chin toward him until their mouths meet. Harry goes to take Louis’ shirt off so he can see all of him, but Louis tenses a bit at the movement and sets Harry’s hands to rest on his hips instead.

“I need you.” He says right against his lips. Then he’s reaching down between them to hold Harry steady when he lines himself up.

He sinks down, breath caught somewhere in his chest when Harry’s width starts to stretch him, and again Harry is in the fog, lost, overwhelmed, too much. 

When he’s finally all the way in Louis wastes no time in starting his movement again, but this time Harry can’t even open his eyes to witness it. He holds onto Louis’ waist pushing up into him each time he sinks back down. He starts moving so that each new thrust drags another ragged breath from Louis’ perfect mouth. “Haz...” he whispers after a particularly hard thrust. Louis leans in wrapping his arms around Harry’s shoulders to grip into his hair, mouth now right against his ear. “Feels good- amazing.”

Harry nods, knowing Louis won’t last much longer with him sounding like this and neither will he. He grips Louis’ dick and focuses the press of his thumb right on the tip, pushing up into him at the same time making Louis’ breathing harsh and all wrong against his neck. 

The soundless whine he makes is all breath when Louis comes, face buried into his neck and shoulder. Harry lets his grip go and picks up his pace to finish himself off. Louis’ skin slaps loudly in the quiet until it’s quiet and Harry is tensing and coming, Louis still draped against him, still breathless and unmoving.

They’re frozen for minutes after, only their lips moving between them. Louis winces when he lifts up and Harry falls out of him, condom a full wrinkled mess from use.

He slips it off, frowning when he has to get up to throw it away and clean Louis’ come off of his lap. When he’s sorted and dressed again he flops back on the couch waiting for Louis to come back.

“You ready?” he asks from the doorway, boxers back on and sporting a new t-shirt. He looks tired and nearly asleep already leaning against the door frame.

Harry grins at him and walks to meet him there. A light kiss before they head inside. “Of course.”

*

“Alright… moment of truth. Here we are. You. Me. Trainer and trainee, at the end of a pathway. The end of a journey of sweat and tears- mostly sweat- and very _very_ hard work. The things I have done…the things I’ve accomplished! I remember the first time you made me sweat. There I was just-”

Harry listens for as long as physically possible before he interrupts. “You’re stalling…”

“This is my moment! Don’t ruin it!”

He fondly rolls his eyes. “This isn’t a moment at all. If you’ve met the goal then you have, but it’s still fine if you haven’t. I don’t want you to put too much pressure on this. There’s no due date for weight loss.”

“I’m not that great at running though. What if I’ve gained more?” His voice is a lot softer, a lot less joking. His eyes show the very real concern he has for a situation that is completely impossible.

“You have done everything I asked of you and more. You exercise regularly, you ‘re eating better, the Chinese delivery place has probably gone bankrupt since you’re no longer their only source of income…” Louis lips quirk up a bit at that. “And plus I see you every day. Trust me, you’re fine, love.”

Louis stalls a few more moments, taking off his trainers and even his socks before he finally steps onto the scale. Harry’s poker face is ruined when the numbers yo-yo then stop moving. Louis would see how wide he’s grinning if he’d just look.

“You going to look? Or am I going to have to celebrate on my own?”

Louis peeks at the numbers and his smile is instantaneous. He looks at Harry then back at the numbers again, calculating a second and third time to be precisely sure. “I-Sixteen and a half!? That’s- that’s…”

“Amazing.” Harry finishes for him.

He doesn’t expect it when Louis flings himself off the scale and kisses him in the middle of all the sweat, breaths, and sounds going on around them. “Oh my God. I don’t even know what to do with myself right now! Where’s-” he swivels around looking until he finds him. “NIALL! NIALL get your arse over here!”

Niall strolls his way over, bag of Lay’s in his hands, the urgency in Louis’ voice doing nothing to motivate him to move faster. “What’s up Tommo? Haz propose already?” Harry punches him in the arm.

“No no! Not that! This is _better_ …” he winks at Harry when he looks very offended. “Look, watch this.” He shows Niall his beginning weight written down in his folder then hops on the scale watching the numbers dwindle down till they stop. “YOU SEE THAT?! I SEE THAT! Do you fucking see that?!”

“That’s crazy! Congratulations! Really, that’s amazing. You and Harry did a great job together….I daresay a better job than maybe you and I could have…Glad you met your goal, Tommo.” Louis hugs him immediately causing Niall to stumble backwards. Louis soon abandons him though and embraces Harry instead.

“Thank you Haz, really. I can’t thank you enough. I couldn’t have done this alone…I feel like I owe you more than just a thank you…”

Louis wiggles his eyebrows up and down and right away Harry is snapped out of trainer mode and straight into…boyfriend mode? He isn’t quite sure yet, but it sounds about right. He leans down to bring their lips together, innocent enough for a public gym. They break apart when Niall nearly shrieks beside them.

“The fuck? What the hell is this?!” His eyes are wide and panicked as his eyes read and reread the number on the scale. “Eleven pounds?! This scale is such a piece of shit! When was it last calibrated?”

“Umm…Zayn did it yesterday?”

“There’s no way! He did it wrong… he- hold this.” He shoves his bag of Lay’s into Harry’s hand while he tries again, like the number is going to change. It doesn’t.

“It’s not the number that matters,” Harry tries even though his smile is already cracking through his serious professional persona. “It’s how you feel.”

“Can you not?? I _feel_ like I’ve gained eleven bloody pounds!”

When he leaves to go sulk in the company of Zayn and Liam, Harry lets out the loudest cackle he’s ever heard himself make.  He recovers after a full minute of laughing and leaning against the wall. Louis sidles up to him when he’s just getting his breath back.

He takes a quick look around then slides his cool fingers under his shirt to rest on his stomach. Harry’s breathing skips at the touch. “I was saying something about owing you more than a thank you, I think?” He slides his hands down to his waistband fingers dancing right on the edge. “I think we can work something out in the lockers if no one is in there.” Harry is definitely getting hard just thinking about it.

“You sure?” He asks as a courtesy in case Louis wanting to spontaneously blow him at his job is something he’s on the fence about. God he hopes not.

Louis doesn’t even answer, just takes his hand and leads them that way, skillfully ignoring any glances he gets for practically dragging his trainer through the gym.

*

Only after they’ve stumbled out of the lockers with no hope of pretending they weren’t just doing what everyone in the building probably heard them doing, he meets Louis at his flat and that’s when trainer Harry kicks back in. He’s in the middle of explaining how maintaining weight loss is just as important and requires just as much dedication as losing weight in the first place when Louis kisses him in the middle of his speech. He almost forgets what he was even talking about; almost.

“You don’t even know what I was going to say next!” It comes out as a mumble against his lips.

“Something super boring about scales being crafts of Satan and carbs being the silent killer of all diets everywhere, I’m sure. Heard it all before, Harold. Don’t care.”

“You’re so annoying…” Harry closes the gap between them again, but this time rolling them so Louis is on his back, Harry’s weight holding him down.

Louis wraps his legs around his middle, his tongue slick and wet in his mouth, “Yeah but I feel amazing and I’ve just lost sixteen and a half pounds. I can be an annoying shit tonight. It’s allowed.”

Louis’ phone vibrates next to them, momentarily interrupting the grinding rhythm they had going against each other’s jeans. They ignore it, but then it’s vibrating a second and third time, the person on the other end hell bent on talking to him.

Louis groans and grabs it right off the bedside table. He doesn’t even check to see who it is before he’s talking. “This better be the _most_ important thing you’ve ever had to tell me…” Harry can’t hear words from the other end. It just sounds like mumbles, but whatever it is must be a negative on the Tomlinson Importance Scale because he’s pinching the bridge of his nose with a weary sigh. You called for what?! Right now??” Harry wonders who could be on the other line that possesses the power to drain all the patience from Louis’ beautiful face.

“I don’t know! Look, I’ll talk to you later okay? Because I’m kind of _busy_ with my boyfriend, is that alright with you?” So this _is_ boyfriend territory after all; good to know, Harry thinks. “ _Yes_ I’ll tell him. Alright…Alright! Goodnight bye.” Louis throws the phone back on the table. He lets his forearms drape across his face to hide his eyes. Harry kisses the gorgeous triceps which are now exposed to him.

“I’m going to have to have Niall blocked...he rings me up and wants the numbers to all my favorite take away places so he can figure out which foods have the least amount of calories but the biggest portions. He’s convinced his places are cheating him out of food.” Louis lets his arms rest back on the bed. “Who even does shit like that?”

Harry grins at his mini frustrated rant and kisses his lips now that his arms have fallen out of the way. “Well my boyfriend used to do shit like that…he even ate three portions of ravioli in one sitting once, but that was before I taught him to cook raw meat and eat healthier.”

Louis fails at fighting his grin, looking more sheepish now instead of annoyed. “I guess I did let the b-word slip out just now…I’m not really regretting it so far.” He shrugs. “Niall says hello by the way.”

“His brain skips right over anything to do with Niall. “I’m glad you let it slip out. I was hoping we were…you know. That we were-”

“Serious? Exclusive? Infatuated? Madly in love?” Louis lists them off on his fingers like a grocery list beneath him.

“The first one.” Harry smiles. “A bit of the other two as well...”

“And the madly in love part?” Louis ghosts his lips against Harry’s. It’s such a soft tough that it’s barely there. It’s times like these where he thinks he could fall madly in love with him.

“We could be. I want to be.” He amends and Louis grins against his mouth, pulling him in.

“We’ll get there, love.” He finally closes the small gap between them.

He pulls Harry down by his shoulders as close as he can get him then wraps his legs back around his middle to hold him there. Harry gets so caught up in chasing Louis’ taste that he hardly notices Louis trying to undress him.

He breaks away so Louis can take off his shirt, and this time when he goes to return the favor he isn’t stopped or distracted away from the flat plane of golden skin. He kisses across the tattoo inked on his chest and continues down his torso nipping and pecking little marks as he goes. He notices Louis tense a bit when he gets below his navel and he looks up to see Louis’ eyes closed. He can’t help but wonder what he’s thinking right now…if he’s just in the moment or if he wants Harry to move away from his stomach; why he always seems uncomfortable with Harry seeing and touching him there. He crawls back up Louis’ body to rest beside him, Louis shooting him a curious look from the pillow.

“Something wrong?” he asks, raking a hand through Harry’s hair. And Harry could say no. He could pretend he doesn’t notice when Louis looks in the mirror and rests a subconscious hand on his stomach or thighs, or how he gets quiet when he thinks someone else looks better or thinner than him at the gym. If Harry does that though he’s only helping feed the nagging voice in Louis’ mind. He wishes Louis didn’t have that voice at all.

“Lou…what do you think _my_ goal was for you?” He twists their hands together waiting for Louis to stop looking at him like that; like he’s crazy. “It’s not a trainer thing, I promise...” he reassures when Louis looks like he’s about to kick him for interrupting what was most definitely about to turn into sex. “I’m just curious, I swear.”

Louis scrunches up his eyebrows with a small shrug relinquishing to Harry’s impromptu chat. “I don’t know. For me to lose fifteen pounds I guess. Why do you ask?”

“Because I figured you had it all wrong.” Harry shakes his head and hold Louis’ hand tighter as he speaks. “My goal was never for you to lose weight Lou. My goal was for you to accomplish whatever _you_ wanted. My job is to make sure you feel good. I’ve never cared about the number on the scale and I never will… you know that. I thought you were perfect the day I first saw you and I still think you’re perfect now. I want you to see it too though.”

He doesn’t touch Louis anywhere other than his hands. He watches Harry’s eyes carefully. He hopes he’s conveying what he intended.

“I don’t know what to say…” he grins sheepishly.

“Don’t say anything. Just know that you’re amazing and beautiful. That’s all I want.”

“Oh that’s all?” Louis quips sarcastically. He rolls his eyes but then he’s kissing Harry’s lips. “Thanks, Haz. Really. I love that you care about me…that I don’t have to try and be someone else for you. I know I need to work on some things... I know I get a little self-conscious, but it rarely happens when I’m with you. That’s why I keep tricking you into hanging out with me.” He jokes to make the mood lighter but the sincerity in his eye is still there.

When they kiss and Harry resumes his journey down his torso he barely notices any reluctance from Louis. He licks his way further until Louis is so eager that he’s trembling around Harry’s tongue inside him. This time when they’re connected and Harry pushes inside, Louis’ bare chest and stomach are slick and warm and pressed right against his.

 

He gets pulled from his dream listening to Louis shuffle around in the soft morning light. He doesn’t move for a while. He just stays as still as he can, listening to Louis swear beneath his breath, bumping into things because he hasn’t turned on the light.

Harry guesses he’s pretty good at pretending to be unconscious, that is until Louis dips down to his level, his soft lips barely touching the shell of his ear. “I know you’re awake, genius.” He smacks a kiss to Harry’s forehead.

Harry loves the attention, but he groans just to be annoying; he learned from the master after all. “Why are you up? This was supposed to be sleep in day, remember?”

“We’re going for our run, of course.” Louis throws his extra pair of trainers at Harry’s side of the bed. “The quicker we go the quicker we can shower and get back in bed.”

He sits up at that.

He eyes Louis unbelievably, his expression becoming even more incredulous when he sees Louis is fully dressed. He even has his water bottle in hand. “ _You_ want to go early morning running? _You_ are forcing _me_ out of bed to exercise? What happened to respecting the sun and the sanctity of Saturday and all that?”

Louis shrugs. “Routine makes everything easier. You taught me that.” He smiles.

Harry's mouth is hanging open just a bit at Louis using his trainer psychology to his advantage. “Mate, you’ve changed.” He groans when Louis throws joggers and a shirt at him.

 

The roles are oddly reversed when Louis is done stretching by the time Harry is just starting. “The one day I wanted to lie in bed and you’ve got me out at the crack of dawn.” Harry huffs out a dramatic sigh, but in all honesty he’s proud of Louis for taking initiative and trying to be healthy all on his own. It’s just more fun to be a menace about it.

“Are you quite finished?” Louis smirks.

Harry stands straight and makes his way over to kiss Louis’ lips. His breath catches when Harry pulls away. “Now I am.” He smirks as he turns, but Louis stops him with a hand on his back.

He stands on his toes to reach his ear and he’s on pins and needles wondering what Louis is about to do. He waits for the tickle to his side, the nibble on his ear, or whatever Louis has planned, but he doesn’t expect Louis’ words. “Race you!”

The words don’t hit him until it’s too late and Louis is flying down the pathway laughing like an idiot. Harry is motionless for a few seconds until his sleepy brain catches up with the rest of him and starts down the path after him. He slows down when he’s right on Louis’ heels. He could beat him if he wanted, but today is Louis’ day. He _should_ win, he thinks.

“You should quit while you’re ahead!” he yells back when he hears Harry quickly approaching. “I’ll understand if you’re not up to the challenge.” It takes more maturity than he’s really capable of, but Harry doesn’t take the bait. He doesn’t speed up to power past him. He keeps his same pace letting his boyfriend pretend that he’s faster while shooting out insults over his shoulder.

Harry takes the time to admire Louis from behind while’s back there. He gets caught when Louis turns to brag some more.

“Staring at my arse won’t make you any faster, love!”

Harry speeds up just so he’s right behind Louis to pinch one of his cheeks. He laughs at the yelp he makes. “Being a prick won’t get you sucked off in the shower any quicker either.”

“You shouldn’t tease! If you make me run with a hard on I will never forgive you.” Louis he speeds up just a bit, his chin held high. Harry matches him step for step then tugs on his arm to stop him completely.

“The quicker we finish the quicker I can take care of you.”

Louis is out of breath and glistening in sweat but his eyes darken when Harry trails his hands down Louis’ back and down to his bum. It’s easy to see him getting a little stiff through the thin fabric of his bottoms.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Louis asks outraged that Harry would bring him to a full stop when there are promises of blowjobs.

He takes off again with Harry right next to him, laughing as they race back.

 

The End.


End file.
